Fire Exit

In his debut novel, prizewinning short-story author Talty (a citizen of the Penobscot Indian Nation) brings us to just outside the border of the Penobscot reservation in Maine. Charles Lamosway lives within sight of the reservation, also within sight of a house where his daughter, Ellie, lives. Most people, including Ellie, think that her mother’s husband is Ellie’s father. Charles knows “what it [is] like to feel invisible inside the great, great dream of being,” with Talty succeeding beautifully in portraying a man who’s cut off from his own life and from the world around him, even as he cares for his mother, who is slowly slipping into dementia—a situation that brings Charles and readers some moments of dark comedy—and faces his stepfather’s violent death. Then—it seems almost inevitable, given Charles’ lot in life—his daughter goes missing, and secrets can no longer hold. The beauty of this book lies in following Charles as he tries to pierce the barriers that keep his love from mattering, a relentless struggle often mirrored in long phrases with repeated words (“and only then did the man leave and only then did the doctor come to the heavy wooden door”). There’s a satisfying ending here, and sure to be further prizes ahead for Talty.