The House is on Fire, by Rachel Beanland
Last year for our library book club, I read Rachel Beanland’s debut novel, Florence Adler Swims Forever. I loved it!
Beanland is back with her latest historical fiction book, about the Richmond Theatre Fire in 1811. 72 people died in the fire; 54 women and 18 men. Beanland creates a novel around this tragic event, building out the stories of several people who were known to have been there that night. She weaves together the stories of the privileged and the oppressed, free people and slaves, and men and women.
She has a talent for storytelling, and the book shifts perspectives from one character to another throughout the novel, revealing information along the way. She captures the terror that they must have felt during the fire, and the pain and agony of the injuries that incurred afterwards. But even more so, she tells the story of the people whose survival is dependent on others, due to the social conventions of the time.
There were heroes that day, but there were also cowards, and Beanland tells the stories of both. Although it is fiction, she makes a narrative that is believable in terms of the character’s motivations, and what might have happened.
The story gripped me from beginning to end, and made me feel the sadness and anger that so many must have felt. The best novel I have read lately!
5 stars.
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