Granite Mountain

April 18, 2016
With candor, determination, and a need for redemption, McDonough chronicles his difficult journey to join an elite hotshot crew of wildfire firefighters, which transformed him from an aimless druggie to a responsible team member. With coauthor Talty, McDonough describes himself as “a typical blond, blue-eyed SoCal boy” with a restless free-spirited mother and an absent junkie father. He’s rootless until he settles in Prescott, Ariz., where he enrolls in a program, Fire Explorer, that’s designed for teens who want to be firefighters. A career as a firefighter appeals to McDonough for the sense of brotherhood and service; he enrolls in courses but flunks out, sliding back into drugs and jail. His luck changes when he’s accepted into the Granite Mountain Hotshots, the most experienced wildfire fighting unit, and is given a second chance by its director and “his brothers” to become a capable member. The dangers of battling fires on the ground and air are many and McDonough thrillingly explains the terror and panic of the fateful June 30, 2013 tragedy at Yarnell Hill, where all 19 of his crew members perished, leaving him with painful survivor’s guilt. But strong support propelled him into a new life of grace and renewal. Agent: Scott Waxman, Waxman Leavell Literary Agency.

May 1, 2016
McDonough is the sole survivor of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, the wildland firefighting crew who lost 19 members in the 2013 Yarnell Hill fire. In this heartfelt memoir, he shares his story of growing up with a restless, volatile mother; estrangement from his older brother; and multiple personal failures. The Granite Mountain crew grounded him, gave him purpose, and taught him everything that mattered. As the postfire investigation revealed, McDonough had no role in the accident, and it was systemic failures that resulted in the tragedy. This is not the definitive book on the tragic fire, and it doesn't try to be. Instead, McDonough's gut-wrenching survival story, written with the expert assistance of best-selling Talty (Escape from the Land of Snows, 2011) possesses a searing degree of emotion. With his insightful barbs aimed at our increasingly unrealistic ideal of life in the West and the many ways in which wildland firefighters are let down by those who fund and rely upon them, and brutally honest assessment of his struggles with PTSD, McDonough gives readers a unique and bracing literary experience.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)