A dark secret born out of World War II lies at the heart of a Sicilian
American family in this emotional and sweeping saga of guilt, revenge,
and, ultimately, redemption.
After soldiers vacate the Sicilian hillside town of Melilli in the
summer of 1943, the locals celebrate, giving thanks to their patron
saint, Sebastian. Amid the revelry, all it takes is one fateful moment
for the destiny of nine-year-old Salvatore Vassallo to change forever.
When his twin brothers are killed playing with an unexploded mortar
shell, Salvatore's faith is destroyed. As the family unravels, and fear
ignites among their neighbors that the Vassallo name is cursed, one
tragedy begets another.
Desperate to escape this haunting legacy, Salvatore accepts the help of
an Italian soldier with fascist ties who ushers him and his sister,
Nella, into a new beginning in America. In Middletown, Connecticut, in
the immigrant neighborhood known as Little Melilli, these three struggle
to build new lives for themselves. But a dangerous choice to keep their
secrets hidden erupts in violence decades later. When Salvatore loses
his inquisitive American-born son, David, they all learn too late the
price sons pay for their fathers' wars.
Written with elegiac prose, How Fires End delves into the secret wars
of men; the sins they cannot bury; and a life lived in fear of who will
reveal them, who will survive them, and who will forgive them.
