Summer of Smoke

The originality in his approach and his grip of humor writing knock the wind out of me.-Boulder WeeklyWhen thick wildfire smoke lingers in a small Oregon town daily life begins to more closely resemble an apocalyptic sci-fi film than summer vacation and the locals all go a bit nuts. However the Gilbert family just goes a bit more nuts than usual.The father Greg is so depressed he barely gets out of bed choosing instead to haunt online conspiracy forums about why the fire hasnt yet been extinguished. The mother Lina tries to volunteer at various charities to alleviate her guilt over the state of the environment but consistently ditches to smoke pot. Emma the daughter who just returned from college as a vegan eco-radical spends her evenings in campaigns of petty sabotage directed at anyone over thirty for their complicity in climate change.And the high school age son Shannon seeks literal escape by taking a job as trail guide to a Bigfoot seeker in the mountains beyond the smokes reach but finds that the constant trips in and out of the smoke begin to warp his sense of reality.Each chapter is told from a different characters POV weaving multiple plot threads together as the Gilbert family unravels. They are each simultaneously at war with the weather with each other and with their fracturing senses of self and order to the universe. By summers end nothing will be the same. [His] are the kind of soul-molesting stories that are difficult to forget and would be a shame to miss out on.-LauraReviewsBooks.comSweet merciful Christ thank you so much for something decent delightful original and inventive to edit. The shit-eating grin hasnt left my face since the first page. -Joan Rogers copyeditor for Summer of Smoke