Writer’s debut novel tells story of Irish immigrants in Brooklyn
Brooklyn BookBeat: Brooklyn-Raised Author to Speak in Cobble Hill on Sept. 7
Kathleen Donohoe’s debut novel “Ashes of Fiery Weather” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, on sale Aug. 30), tells the story of another Brooklyn — one of hardworking and displaced Irish immigrants coming to find a new start in its less glamorous neighborhoods.
Donohoe recreates the close-knit enclaves these families settled in just after the famine years in Ireland through to the devastation of 9/11; their stories and what tied them to this American city unfolds in her book. Library Journal’s reviewer observed, “That the author grew up in such a family makes her work that much more realized with strongly developed supporting characters, gritty realism and a non-Hollywood-style ending.”
Seven women’s stories intertwine around one fire company where the men — fathers, husbands, sons — have staked their lives and identity. The Glory Devlins are a close-knit company; when one member is injured or killed, the families are tended to by the rest of the company. To be a part of the Glory Devlins is to be a part of a legacy: a history of bravery, of having the instinct to run toward the danger, to search and rescue even when one’s own life is at stake and to also mourn those who never make it out.