The Fires

<em>Smoke has as many different scents as skin. Part of the pleasure is not knowing what it will be -- sulfurous or closer to incense or airier and sweeter as I imagine the smell of clouds.</em><p>Ella is a connoisseur of fire a woman enthralled by it as other women are by love. She savors the seductive promise of a spark the caress of a curling wisp of smoke the all-consuming hunger of a spreading blaze. Ella's heart seethes with a rage that can be spoken only with tongues of flame.<p>In her remarkable first novel Rene Steinke has created a narrator so lyrical and lucid in her madness as to raise the book to the level of romance. Trapped in a sleepy Indiana town torn by inner demons that drive her to pyromania and promiscuity Ella is at once entirely original and unforgettably real.<p>As she struggles to come to terms with her family's tormented past and her own uncertain future she draws the mesmerized reader ever deeper into her scorched soul revealing a sensuality that will spiral into final fiery destruction -- unless it can be quenched by love.