FIRE COLOR ONE

In any family, not everything is as it seems, but in Iris' family, this is a big problem.

When white, 16-year-old Iris meets her father for the first time, he is dying. That doesn't stop her from feeling ambivalent. She has no memories of him and has been told all her life by her mother that he left 12 years ago because he wasn't interested in being a dad. She doesn't even want to meet him, but her mother insists because of the potential for a valuable inheritance. Iris has had no experience with positive parenting role models. Her mother and stepfather are usually drunk, broke, or trying desperately to get the big break they refuse to admit isn't coming. Iris' best friend, Thurston, left home long ago, so no parents there. When her dad and his story turn out to be completely different from what she’s been told, it's both confusing and amazing. But how much love can they manage in the time he has left? Valentine writes about family dysfunction, arson, and art with equal levels of beauty and lyricism, creating a vivid landscape of heartache and redemption. The plot dips forward and backward in time with clarity and precision, managing to avoid tripping even in narrative tight corners.

A story about an ugly situation that explodes into beauty through cunning and resilience.