Signal Fires - Dani Shapiro

Fiction

Rating: 8.5/10

This is a story of family secrets, the ones we bury deep.  The ones so dangerous that no member of a family, no matter what circumstance they find themselves in, ever dares to speak of. The ones that will unravel everything without anyone even noticing.

This is a story of neighborhoods.  Haunted by deceptions and heartaches and lies; bustling with the triumphs and moments of grace that weave their way through communities.

This is the story of homes.  With books heaped on shelves and intimate touches sprawled throughout, awash with nostalgia.

Ultimately this is a deeply moving story of wonderous connections and profound love. Where people allow the constraints their falsehoods have bound in them to lift and let themselves be finally known.

The story begins with Ben having packed up his house of forty plus years to join his beloved wife in an assisted living facility. The night before the big move he meets his exceptional young neighbor Waldo, resulting in a deluge of memories. As he reflects on the moment that changed everything, we are introduced to his children. And soon the reader discovers there is more than one moment that changed the course of the lives of these characters in the decades they have lived amongst each other.

Dani Shapiro has a way with language.  Composing sentences that evoke depths of meaning that are sure to sneak up on a reader.

A gem of a novel, beautifully crafted and brilliantly constructed.

Book Pairing(s): A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, Story Of Arthur Truluv by Elizabeth Berg, One Hundred Years Of Lenni & Margot by Marianne Cronin