The Arsonist

Not only is Sue Miller one of our most deft and satisfying writers of literary fiction, she's also on a par as a performer with some of the best narrators of audiobooks we have. Her voice is lovely, calm, and supple, and her tone matches the smooth style of the writing in a way that makes for a wonderfully integrated listening experience, completely free of distracting questions of whether the performer has understood what the author intended. The story, of a small New England town on edge because of a string of arsons, is more thoughtful than dramatic, and feels utterly real. Miller writes women particularly well, and it's fascinating to know how Frankie Rowley's inner life sounds to Miller herself. A beautiful performance. B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

April 28, 2014
A small New Hampshire town provides the backdrop for Miller’s (The Senator’s Wife) provocative novel about the boundaries of relationships and the tenuous alliance between locals and summer residents when a crisis is at hand. After years of being an aid worker in Africa, Frankie Rowley returns to the idyllic Pomeroy, N.H., summer home to which her parents have retired. But all is not well in Pomeroy, where a spate of house fires leaves everyone wary and afraid. Frankie, who may have seen the arsonist her first night home, contemplates her ambiguous future and falls for Bud Jacobs, a transplant who has traded the hustle and bustle of covering politics in D.C. for the security of smalltown life, buying the local newspaper. Meanwhile, Sylvia, Frankie’s mother, becomes concerned about her husband’s increasingly erratic behavior, fearful that it’s a harbinger of Alzheimer’s. Liz, Frankie’s married sister, has her hands full dealing with their parents while Frankie’s been overseas. Miller, a pro at explicating family relationships as well as the fragile underpinnings of mature romance, brilliantly draws parallels between Frankie’s world in Africa and her life in New Hampshire, and explores how her characters define what “home” means to them and the lengths they will go to protect it.