Скачать или смотреть Ep 108 NHPR John Manuel Arias: WHERE THERE WAS FIRE

John Manuel Arias is a queer Costa Rican-American poet and writer who has lived in the U.S. and in Costa Rica where, as he reports, he shared a house with his grandmother and four ghosts. His debut novel, Where There Was Fire (https://www.johnmanuelarias.com/) , burst onto the scene in August 2023.



Set in Costa Rica, this story follows several generations of women in one family — mothers and daughters — alternating between their lives in the 1960s and the 1990s.



The novel focuses on one major event that reverberates and haunts each generation: a fire that burnt down a banana plantation and in which a father goes missing.



This single event tears the family apart and gives rise to ghosts that keep the characters pushing for answers. Who started the fire? What happened to a missing husband? To a dead mother? Where There Was Fire is about love and secrets, reconciliation and redemption, all focused around the biggest question of all: What is the price of a banana?