Where There's Smoke There's Fire

Where There's Smoke There's FireThis ambitious novella centers around a conflagration that destroys the upper floors of a Lower Manhattan condominium. Spanning 1975 to 2011, it depicts the interconnectedness of the lives of an older illegal Jamaican immigrant, a middle aged war photojournalist whose British father and Italian mother met in the civil unrest of 1968 Northern Ireland, a working class college football player transplanted to Louisiana State University, and a Columbia

This ambitious novella centers around a conflagration that destroys the upper floors of a Lower Manhattan condominium. Spanning 1975 to 2011, it depicts the interconnectedness of the lives of an older illegal Jamaican immigrant, a middle-aged war photojournalist whose British father and Italian mother met in the civil unrest of 1968 Northern Ireland, a working-class college football player transplanted to Louisiana State University, and a Columbia undergrad from an affluent Upper East Side family.

Inspired by Louise Erdrich's experimental narrative technique in LOVE MEDICINE (National Book Critics Circle Award, 1984), the novella is a jigsaw of temporal shifts and unexpected correspondences. Motifs serve as essential unifying threads. The work is the fruit of the creative energies of Jennifer Chen and and her 2011-2012 English 12 class at Rye Country Day, an independent school located in Rye, NY. We hope you enjoy the read!