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Signal Fires
NATIONAL BEST SELLER • From the beloved author of INHERITANCE: “a haunting, moving, and propulsive exploration of family secrets” (Meg Wolitzer, author of The Interestings)
Two families. One night. A constellation of lives changed forever.
A TIME Best Fiction Book of the Year • A Washington Post Notable Work of Fiction • A Real Simple Best Book of the Year
An ancient majestic oak stands beneath the stars on Division Street. And under the tree sits Ben Wilf, a retired doctor, and ten-year-old Waldo Shenkman, a brilliant, lonely boy who is pointing out his favorite constellations. Waldo doesn’t realize it but he and Ben have met before. And they will again, and again. Across time and space, and shared destiny.
Division Street is full of secrets. An impulsive lie begets a secret—one which will forever haunt the Wilf family. And the Shenkmans, who move into the neighborhood many years later, bring secrets of their own.. Spanning fifty kaleidoscopic years, on a street—and in a galaxy—where stars collapse and stories collide, these two families become bound in ways they never could have imagined.
Urgent and compassionate, SIGNAL FIRES is a magical story for our times, a literary tour de force by a masterful storyteller at the height of her powers. A luminous meditation on family, memory, and the healing power of interconnectedness.
Two families. One night. A constellation of lives changed forever.
A TIME Best Fiction Book of the Year • A Washington Post Notable Work of Fiction • A Real Simple Best Book of the Year
An ancient majestic oak stands beneath the stars on Division Street. And under the tree sits Ben Wilf, a retired doctor, and ten-year-old Waldo Shenkman, a brilliant, lonely boy who is pointing out his favorite constellations. Waldo doesn’t realize it but he and Ben have met before. And they will again, and again. Across time and space, and shared destiny.
Division Street is full of secrets. An impulsive lie begets a secret—one which will forever haunt the Wilf family. And the Shenkmans, who move into the neighborhood many years later, bring secrets of their own.. Spanning fifty kaleidoscopic years, on a street—and in a galaxy—where stars collapse and stories collide, these two families become bound in ways they never could have imagined.
Urgent and compassionate, SIGNAL FIRES is a magical story for our times, a literary tour de force by a masterful storyteller at the height of her powers. A luminous meditation on family, memory, and the healing power of interconnectedness.
229 pages, Hardcover
First published October 18, 2022
1835 people are currently reading
72097 people want to read
About the author
Dani Shapiro
22 books2,612 followersDani Shapiro is the bestselling author of the memoirs Hourglass, Still Writing, Devotion, and Slow Motion, and five novels including Black & White and Family History. She lives with her family in LItchfield County, Connecticut. Her latest memoir, Inheritance, will be published by Knopf in January, 2019.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 4,673 reviews
August 22, 2022
I could not - could not - COULD NOT - LOVE THIS BOOK MORE!!!
I was a crying mess towards the end —
End? I didn’t want it end!
No Question about it…..it’s ABSOLUTELY one of my favorite books of the year — ( selfishly—personally so!!!)
There is not one person I wouldn’t recommend this book to.
Other readers might not be feeling as sensitive- about life - as I am at the moment — and perhaps not everyone will feel soooo gratefully moved and blessed for having read it (of course not - I’m not that naïve)— but it is A BEAUTIFUL BOOK!! >> and I believe there are other readers that will read this book - want to live inside it as I did - never stop reading it (other than to stop and pause to contemplate moving sentences, scenes, or themes that Dani wrote)
Every inch of “Signal Fires” was moving — I experienced it with all my senses!!!!
The writing invites deep reflection…. illuminated by the warmth and delicacy of her prose.
There was an ‘out-of-the-ordinary’ scene where Ben, Dr. Wilf, got angry at both of his adult kids: Sarah and Theo. I set the book down and simply looked into the darkness of my room- from my bed at 4am. …. (to think about the following excerpt from many points of view)
“This is what happens with grown children and their parents. He’s seen it in his practice. They begin to take over. They think they know best. Meanwhile, where the hell has either of them been—for years now?”
A few more non-traditional tidbits to share - rather than a formal proper review:
….Several characters had a hard time sharing their feelings…..but had plenty of feelings. For me — this running theme throughout is in itself worthy of discussion.
…..Waldo Shenkman wasn’t like most - (almost eleven) - other boys ….. Besides being kind, sweet, and sensitive,
He was interested in the universe ….
…..Andromeda, Antlia, Apus, Aquarius, Aquila, Ara,
Aries. . . etc.“
Waldo had a brilliant mind. The journey we take with him, his parents, Dr. Ben Wilk— (his own coming-of-age tale) —will touch the most common elements of the heart.
Every character is deeply felt …..
A tragedy is deeply felt ….
Family is deeply felt ….
The cost of silence and loneliness is deeply felt …
Dani has written ‘Signal Fires’ with humanity that transcends time and the experience of living.
Her characters are compelling and true.
And, as the reader, I wanted to heal them all.
A few little excerpts that spoke to me:
“Silence didn’t make it go away but instead drove the events of that night or deeply into each of them”.
“The 20th century is coming to an end. Mimi feels it as a pang of loss. Years she had her babies, years in which she was a young mother, nursing, singing lullabies, walking them up and down the uneven sidewalks, holding hands, lifting them high on their shoulders. The years of preschool, grade school, middle school, high school. Also long gone now, and soon to be relegated to another century entirely“.
“What is left to her? She rarely lets herself think this way, but something about this day is making her melancholy. That young family across the street with their new baby is at the beginning of a life that they think will last forever”.
“The stars are watching over us, Lady. They know where we are. They’ll find us”.
Dani Shapiro write like an angel!!!!
Thank you Netgalley, Knopf Doubleday Publishing
….and a huge ‘hug-of-love’ thanks to Dani Shapiro for writing this book. It was a pure and personal gift to my soul.
Note: This novel will be published Oct. 18th.
I was a crying mess towards the end —
End? I didn’t want it end!
No Question about it…..it’s ABSOLUTELY one of my favorite books of the year — ( selfishly—personally so!!!)
There is not one person I wouldn’t recommend this book to.
Other readers might not be feeling as sensitive- about life - as I am at the moment — and perhaps not everyone will feel soooo gratefully moved and blessed for having read it (of course not - I’m not that naïve)— but it is A BEAUTIFUL BOOK!! >> and I believe there are other readers that will read this book - want to live inside it as I did - never stop reading it (other than to stop and pause to contemplate moving sentences, scenes, or themes that Dani wrote)
Every inch of “Signal Fires” was moving — I experienced it with all my senses!!!!
The writing invites deep reflection…. illuminated by the warmth and delicacy of her prose.
There was an ‘out-of-the-ordinary’ scene where Ben, Dr. Wilf, got angry at both of his adult kids: Sarah and Theo. I set the book down and simply looked into the darkness of my room- from my bed at 4am. …. (to think about the following excerpt from many points of view)
“This is what happens with grown children and their parents. He’s seen it in his practice. They begin to take over. They think they know best. Meanwhile, where the hell has either of them been—for years now?”
A few more non-traditional tidbits to share - rather than a formal proper review:
….Several characters had a hard time sharing their feelings…..but had plenty of feelings. For me — this running theme throughout is in itself worthy of discussion.
…..Waldo Shenkman wasn’t like most - (almost eleven) - other boys ….. Besides being kind, sweet, and sensitive,
He was interested in the universe ….
…..Andromeda, Antlia, Apus, Aquarius, Aquila, Ara,
Aries. . . etc.“
Waldo had a brilliant mind. The journey we take with him, his parents, Dr. Ben Wilk— (his own coming-of-age tale) —will touch the most common elements of the heart.
Every character is deeply felt …..
A tragedy is deeply felt ….
Family is deeply felt ….
The cost of silence and loneliness is deeply felt …
Dani has written ‘Signal Fires’ with humanity that transcends time and the experience of living.
Her characters are compelling and true.
And, as the reader, I wanted to heal them all.
A few little excerpts that spoke to me:
“Silence didn’t make it go away but instead drove the events of that night or deeply into each of them”.
“The 20th century is coming to an end. Mimi feels it as a pang of loss. Years she had her babies, years in which she was a young mother, nursing, singing lullabies, walking them up and down the uneven sidewalks, holding hands, lifting them high on their shoulders. The years of preschool, grade school, middle school, high school. Also long gone now, and soon to be relegated to another century entirely“.
“What is left to her? She rarely lets herself think this way, but something about this day is making her melancholy. That young family across the street with their new baby is at the beginning of a life that they think will last forever”.
“The stars are watching over us, Lady. They know where we are. They’ll find us”.
Dani Shapiro write like an angel!!!!
Thank you Netgalley, Knopf Doubleday Publishing
….and a huge ‘hug-of-love’ thanks to Dani Shapiro for writing this book. It was a pure and personal gift to my soul.
Note: This novel will be published Oct. 18th.
March 9, 2023
1.5 Stars
Pretty sure I’m an outlier on this one. In fact, I feel generous with my two star round up.
I love character driven books and circuitous family dramas, but this felt absolutely directionless. And the way it jumped around from character to character and timeline to timeline only served to make me feel even more disassociated from the story (if you can even say there was one) and its players.
Also, I know the author was going for that big emotional statement about life, etc., but I've read the whole "change one thing and everything changes" shtick before - and better - than this book accomplished.
The death knell for me though was the introduction of the 2020 timeline, the pandemic, and subtle not so subtle sprinkles of political leanings. I really don't care which way you lean, folks. I don't even care if I agree. I just don't want to hear about it. Period. This book starts in 1985. There was absolutely NO need for this to be a part of the story. It felt intentional and curated and I didn't care for it. It completely ripped me out of the story. And I was barely holding at a low 3-star at that point already.
Pretty sure I’m an outlier on this one. In fact, I feel generous with my two star round up.
I love character driven books and circuitous family dramas, but this felt absolutely directionless. And the way it jumped around from character to character and timeline to timeline only served to make me feel even more disassociated from the story (if you can even say there was one) and its players.
Also, I know the author was going for that big emotional statement about life, etc., but I've read the whole "change one thing and everything changes" shtick before - and better - than this book accomplished.
The death knell for me though was the introduction of the 2020 timeline, the pandemic, and subtle not so subtle sprinkles of political leanings. I really don't care which way you lean, folks. I don't even care if I agree. I just don't want to hear about it. Period. This book starts in 1985. There was absolutely NO need for this to be a part of the story. It felt intentional and curated and I didn't care for it. It completely ripped me out of the story. And I was barely holding at a low 3-star at that point already.
November 13, 2022
Signal Fires: Fires lit to convey messages or serve as beacons, either by light or smoke.
Dani Shapiro writes a tender and haunting novel of the stars, time, grief, love, loss, trauma, the sickness of the soul and the cancer of silence and secrets, set primarily in Avalon, New York. In a narrative that goes back and forth in time, in 1985 teen siblings Theo and Sarah Wilf make a series of fateful decisions that result in a tragic car crash that leaves their passenger dead and will fundamentally alter the trajectory of their lives. Their father, Ben, a kind man and doctor, is aware of his children's culpability, but his ferocious parental love cannot help but be thankful that they, at least, are alive, and his unswerving instinct is to protect them at all costs, but is all too aware that there are some fates children cannot be saved from. From this moment on, the whole family, including his beloved wife, Mimi, commit to silence, a dangerous secret buried deep, that will trap and tear apart the heart of this loving family.
Through the years the crushing disconnections and consequences emerge, such as Theo leaving and not be in contact for 5 years as he strives to find a way to live with himself, finding some element of solace in becoming a much sought after chef in Brooklyn. Sarah, despite being a successful producer living in California with her family, is caught in a heartbreaking crisis fired by an inner need to self destruct, and Ben must learn to live with a Mimi slipping away from them with Alzheimer's. Ben is on the scene helping to deliver Alice Shenkman's baby, Waldo, cementing what will become an unbreakable connection in the future. The lonely Waldo is a boy genius unlike his peers, he can see what others cannot, time collapsing so that past, present and future become one, and is bewitched and obsessed by the magic of the night skies, the stars and the constellations.
This is a beautifully written philosophical novel, brimming with the stars, heart and wisdom, inhabited by characters you cannot help but love and connect with, particularly the wonderful Waldo with his angry father who would prefer a more 'normal' son, rather than the exceptional one he has. This is a captivating read, so very human and compassionate, of memory, secrets, guilt, grief, redemption, family, the signal fires, the answers to be found in the chorus of the inter-connectivity of everything, where it is understood all time is alive, no-one is lost and nothing disappears forever. A glorious book that I recommend highly to everyone! Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.
Dani Shapiro writes a tender and haunting novel of the stars, time, grief, love, loss, trauma, the sickness of the soul and the cancer of silence and secrets, set primarily in Avalon, New York. In a narrative that goes back and forth in time, in 1985 teen siblings Theo and Sarah Wilf make a series of fateful decisions that result in a tragic car crash that leaves their passenger dead and will fundamentally alter the trajectory of their lives. Their father, Ben, a kind man and doctor, is aware of his children's culpability, but his ferocious parental love cannot help but be thankful that they, at least, are alive, and his unswerving instinct is to protect them at all costs, but is all too aware that there are some fates children cannot be saved from. From this moment on, the whole family, including his beloved wife, Mimi, commit to silence, a dangerous secret buried deep, that will trap and tear apart the heart of this loving family.
Through the years the crushing disconnections and consequences emerge, such as Theo leaving and not be in contact for 5 years as he strives to find a way to live with himself, finding some element of solace in becoming a much sought after chef in Brooklyn. Sarah, despite being a successful producer living in California with her family, is caught in a heartbreaking crisis fired by an inner need to self destruct, and Ben must learn to live with a Mimi slipping away from them with Alzheimer's. Ben is on the scene helping to deliver Alice Shenkman's baby, Waldo, cementing what will become an unbreakable connection in the future. The lonely Waldo is a boy genius unlike his peers, he can see what others cannot, time collapsing so that past, present and future become one, and is bewitched and obsessed by the magic of the night skies, the stars and the constellations.
This is a beautifully written philosophical novel, brimming with the stars, heart and wisdom, inhabited by characters you cannot help but love and connect with, particularly the wonderful Waldo with his angry father who would prefer a more 'normal' son, rather than the exceptional one he has. This is a captivating read, so very human and compassionate, of memory, secrets, guilt, grief, redemption, family, the signal fires, the answers to be found in the chorus of the inter-connectivity of everything, where it is understood all time is alive, no-one is lost and nothing disappears forever. A glorious book that I recommend highly to everyone! Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.
November 23, 2022
What happens when a car accident changes the life of a family? Dreams and hopes change to dread and fear. What takes only moments dramatically changes lives. Secrets left buried that should have been discussed. Leaving them with scars over their heart and addictions of avoidance.
This isn't a happy story. It's a sad and a draining one. But, there are stars that do lead these people back to a truth; that remind us how connected we are to our past, present & future.
The writing was beautiful. But man, this is not an uplifting one but rather a heavy weight to bare.
3.5*
This isn't a happy story. It's a sad and a draining one. But, there are stars that do lead these people back to a truth; that remind us how connected we are to our past, present & future.
The writing was beautiful. But man, this is not an uplifting one but rather a heavy weight to bare.
3.5*
July 31, 2025
This is the story of two families that live across the street from each other in a suburban New York neighborhood.
It’s about the losses, deaths, and secrets that follow them through their lives and throughout several decades.
A story of how we are all connected and no one is ever really lost!
Lovely story.. wonderful characters!
It’s about the losses, deaths, and secrets that follow them through their lives and throughout several decades.
A story of how we are all connected and no one is ever really lost!
Lovely story.. wonderful characters!
November 6, 2022
Dani Shapiro has a talent for drawing you into the story with elegant words and feelings, and this book of hers does just that with aplomb.
It is a story of a single tragedy of a family, a neighborhood, of relationships, and of how one event in a family's history can change everything.
I am guessing a lot of us in our teenage years drank because that was our way of knocking on adult doors, of making our small selves feel bigger, of looking for acceptance. We can easily relate to three teens drinking and one of them getting behind the wheel of a car when tragedy struck. The reverberations never go away and even as Ben Wilf, a young doctor tries to help, things fall apart and a family is never the same again.
The years go by and another family moves onto the street, the Shenkmans expecting their first baby, a boy who will be named Waldo come to live across the street.. Life intervenes and Waldo is born on the kitchen floor, with Dr Ben in attendance, and Waldo becomes a strange boy who grows to love the stars and their constellations. Years later, Dr Ben suffering from his wife's illness and now retired becomes a friend to Waldo. The events of the past merge with the present and a very special redeeming event happens.
Told with beauty, a type of story any of us might find ourselves in, Dani Shapiro has again written a tale of events that tell us who we are, that shape our life, and the pivotal moment when the past and the present come together to make a remarkable future.
It is a story of a single tragedy of a family, a neighborhood, of relationships, and of how one event in a family's history can change everything.
I am guessing a lot of us in our teenage years drank because that was our way of knocking on adult doors, of making our small selves feel bigger, of looking for acceptance. We can easily relate to three teens drinking and one of them getting behind the wheel of a car when tragedy struck. The reverberations never go away and even as Ben Wilf, a young doctor tries to help, things fall apart and a family is never the same again.
The years go by and another family moves onto the street, the Shenkmans expecting their first baby, a boy who will be named Waldo come to live across the street.. Life intervenes and Waldo is born on the kitchen floor, with Dr Ben in attendance, and Waldo becomes a strange boy who grows to love the stars and their constellations. Years later, Dr Ben suffering from his wife's illness and now retired becomes a friend to Waldo. The events of the past merge with the present and a very special redeeming event happens.
Told with beauty, a type of story any of us might find ourselves in, Dani Shapiro has again written a tale of events that tell us who we are, that shape our life, and the pivotal moment when the past and the present come together to make a remarkable future.
August 19, 2022
I've read a few books of non fiction that I enjoyed by this author, but never knew she wrote fiction. Apparently this is her first fictional work in fifteen years and it's a very character oriented work.
One action, one mistake, the effects which will reverberate into the future of those involved.
Shapiro takes the reader into the lives of these people in such an indepth way that one feels as if they personally know them. All their struggles, sorrows, trying to outrun a knowledge they hold deep inside. In later life. Ben Wiff, a physician will have a pivotal effect in another young boys life, Waldo, a young boy whose life he saves. Waldo is a very different boy, a boy who loves the stars and whose father wishes he was different.
Loved and fell hard for the characters, Ben, Theo and Waldo. Hard not to take them into ones heart. A novel of family, memories, space and time, in a very relatable, heartbreaking and heartwarming novel. Loved it from beginning to end.
One action, one mistake, the effects which will reverberate into the future of those involved.
Shapiro takes the reader into the lives of these people in such an indepth way that one feels as if they personally know them. All their struggles, sorrows, trying to outrun a knowledge they hold deep inside. In later life. Ben Wiff, a physician will have a pivotal effect in another young boys life, Waldo, a young boy whose life he saves. Waldo is a very different boy, a boy who loves the stars and whose father wishes he was different.
Loved and fell hard for the characters, Ben, Theo and Waldo. Hard not to take them into ones heart. A novel of family, memories, space and time, in a very relatable, heartbreaking and heartwarming novel. Loved it from beginning to end.
November 9, 2022
I am wearing my "I am an Outlier" shirt AGAIN.
To say that I was eagerly and enthusiastically awaiting Dani Shapiro's first fiction book in 15 years was an understatement.
I am a huge fan of Dani Shapiro's earlier books and essays.
Unfortunately, I just wasn't feeling the "fire"
with "Signal Fires".
Overall, I felt the book was tiresome, depressing, and very, very, very slow.
There are soooo many books showcasing the "One Night, One Fateful Choice, Lives Changed Forever" theme (ugh!) and, quite frankly, other authors did it better than this author.
The author's constant back/forth between time periods and protagonists did not work for me nor did the pacing and number of protagonists.
I also felt that the book would have been more impactful with fewer characters.
"Family History"(2003) is my favorite "Dani" book.
I listened to the audiobook, read by the author.
Since the book unfolded from different time periods and different POVs, it would have benefited from multiple narrators.
Dani Shapiro is a very talented author and this book is proof that nobody bats 1000%.
To say that I was eagerly and enthusiastically awaiting Dani Shapiro's first fiction book in 15 years was an understatement.
I am a huge fan of Dani Shapiro's earlier books and essays.
Unfortunately, I just wasn't feeling the "fire"
with "Signal Fires".
Overall, I felt the book was tiresome, depressing, and very, very, very slow.
There are soooo many books showcasing the "One Night, One Fateful Choice, Lives Changed Forever" theme (ugh!) and, quite frankly, other authors did it better than this author.
The author's constant back/forth between time periods and protagonists did not work for me nor did the pacing and number of protagonists.
I also felt that the book would have been more impactful with fewer characters.
"Family History"(2003) is my favorite "Dani" book.
I listened to the audiobook, read by the author.
Since the book unfolded from different time periods and different POVs, it would have benefited from multiple narrators.
Dani Shapiro is a very talented author and this book is proof that nobody bats 1000%.
November 12, 2022
[3+] A melancholy and introspective novel about individuals in two connected families who are struggling to live a full, good life. Through a series of gorgeously written snapshots, we get to know (a little) Ben, Mimi, Theo, Sarah, Shenkman and Waldo. I liked this novel, especially the relationship between Waldo and Ben. But I often felt suffocated by its heaviness. I was relieved to reach the end.
November 6, 2022
This book is more platitudes than plot. It lacks genuine character development in favor of sentiment. And I’m someone who favors earnestness and emotional vulnerability in my books! I’m pretty baffled by the rave reviews.
October 28, 2022
4 🌠🌠🌠🌠
This was a compact gem I read in one day. You just may come to believe you are part of a galactic supercluster after spending time with these characters. “A chorus of light touching light in sacred spaces” when life’s car wrecks pile up on your hopes and aspirations and you need a rewrite on that ending you had planned and relief from the pain you're in. Where's Waldo? I want to meet him.
This was a compact gem I read in one day. You just may come to believe you are part of a galactic supercluster after spending time with these characters. “A chorus of light touching light in sacred spaces” when life’s car wrecks pile up on your hopes and aspirations and you need a rewrite on that ending you had planned and relief from the pain you're in. Where's Waldo? I want to meet him.
October 19, 2022
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Get ready, you’ll be hearing me talk about Signal Fires a lot in the coming months! Wow!!! It gave me Chorus vibes almost from the beginning and I knew that this was going to be a book that would make an impact on me. I’d love to share a quote from the book that moved me:
Page 197: “It isn’t so much what he says as how he says it: with certainty and…could it be? With love.”
Ahhh it was absolutely the book I needed right now. Shapiro’s writing is beautiful and powerful. She packs a punch with every line. Her characters are deeply written. I love that she takes us right into their story and every character felt so tangible. We know these people very well by the end. I cannot recommend it enough.
Get ready, you’ll be hearing me talk about Signal Fires a lot in the coming months! Wow!!! It gave me Chorus vibes almost from the beginning and I knew that this was going to be a book that would make an impact on me. I’d love to share a quote from the book that moved me:
Page 197: “It isn’t so much what he says as how he says it: with certainty and…could it be? With love.”
Ahhh it was absolutely the book I needed right now. Shapiro’s writing is beautiful and powerful. She packs a punch with every line. Her characters are deeply written. I love that she takes us right into their story and every character felt so tangible. We know these people very well by the end. I cannot recommend it enough.
October 21, 2022
You’ll enjoy this if you like to spend a lot of time listening to the thoughts of a half dozen uninteresting characters and don’t mind that there doesn’t seem to be a plot. Not me.
February 14, 2023
I thouroghly enjoyed Dani Shapiro's memoir, Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love, and also greatly enjoyed Signal Fires.
Shapiro is a fabulous storyteller. Her characters' lives within a neighborhood intersect in ways unimaginable over many decades. These characters don't spend any time getting to know each other except during significant emergencies that test all of them.
Shapiro is a fabulous storyteller. Her characters' lives within a neighborhood intersect in ways unimaginable over many decades. These characters don't spend any time getting to know each other except during significant emergencies that test all of them.
April 2, 2023
In a risky game of poker (the kitty being the readership), Dani Shapiro plays these cards in her book Signal Fires: the Sentimental of Spades, the Sad of Clubs, the Nostalgic of Diamonds, and the Love of Hearts. Truly a dangerous game!
What's more, she chooses an unusual narrative arc in that it's not really an arc (don't tell Noah). If you even consider it a plot "climax," the event occurs around 60 pp. before the finish, making all that follows similar to an epilogue. To Shapiro's credit, she has built enough interest in her characters to keep most of her readers on board. Hell with the plot, the remaining crew seems to be saying, I want to know about these characters.
The structure is not standard but not unusual, either. Segmented by character names and jumps back and forth in time, it is. Starts with a car accident, a death, survivors' guilt, and ultimately a secret carried forward. That's where Jung's line comes in: "The maintenance of secrets acts like a psychic poison which alienates the possessor from the community."
(Note to self: Must read a book by Carl Jung sooner rather than later.)
Anyhow, that's the bottom line. A lot of nice people (only one not-so-nice) carrying around a lot of secrets, poisoning themselves while wondering where the malaise comes from. As for you, a reader thinking about this rather brief novel (220 pp.), I'd say give it a go unless you are absolutely allergic to sentimentality and family in any way, shape, or form. Are you hard like a rock, ask yourself, or hard like a turtle (tough outside, soup inside)? Those questions will do, I think.
Thanks to my daughter, who read it, loved it, and let me borrow it (with a promise to return it -- something I'm quite good at when it comes to books).
What's more, she chooses an unusual narrative arc in that it's not really an arc (don't tell Noah). If you even consider it a plot "climax," the event occurs around 60 pp. before the finish, making all that follows similar to an epilogue. To Shapiro's credit, she has built enough interest in her characters to keep most of her readers on board. Hell with the plot, the remaining crew seems to be saying, I want to know about these characters.
The structure is not standard but not unusual, either. Segmented by character names and jumps back and forth in time, it is. Starts with a car accident, a death, survivors' guilt, and ultimately a secret carried forward. That's where Jung's line comes in: "The maintenance of secrets acts like a psychic poison which alienates the possessor from the community."
(Note to self: Must read a book by Carl Jung sooner rather than later.)
Anyhow, that's the bottom line. A lot of nice people (only one not-so-nice) carrying around a lot of secrets, poisoning themselves while wondering where the malaise comes from. As for you, a reader thinking about this rather brief novel (220 pp.), I'd say give it a go unless you are absolutely allergic to sentimentality and family in any way, shape, or form. Are you hard like a rock, ask yourself, or hard like a turtle (tough outside, soup inside)? Those questions will do, I think.
Thanks to my daughter, who read it, loved it, and let me borrow it (with a promise to return it -- something I'm quite good at when it comes to books).
January 7, 2023
"Signal Fires" is a novella about an upper middle class family living in suburban New York. The parents (a doctor and his wife) have two children - a daughter and son. They are happy until a car accident occurs, which changes the direction of their lives.
I found the book to be interesting, yet not emotionally gripping. With the exception of the doctor, I did not feel particularly connected to the characters. The author's prose is elegant. Her characters are outlined with broad strokes. I would have liked to see more detail about their personalities.
The book may appeal to readers who enjoy thinking about spiritual matters. There is much discussion about what happens to the soul after death. A neighbor boy has a fascination with the stars and the universe. His thoughts about this are linked to beliefs about eternal life.
The author chose to write in a nonlinear way. Maybe this was in tune with the spiritual discussion of how past, present and future are all happening simultaneously. For me however, chapters that went backwards and forwards gave the book a choppy feel.
These are my honest impressions. My 3.5 stars means I liked the book.
3.5 stars
Content Warning: Cancer and Dementia
I found the book to be interesting, yet not emotionally gripping. With the exception of the doctor, I did not feel particularly connected to the characters. The author's prose is elegant. Her characters are outlined with broad strokes. I would have liked to see more detail about their personalities.
The book may appeal to readers who enjoy thinking about spiritual matters. There is much discussion about what happens to the soul after death. A neighbor boy has a fascination with the stars and the universe. His thoughts about this are linked to beliefs about eternal life.
The author chose to write in a nonlinear way. Maybe this was in tune with the spiritual discussion of how past, present and future are all happening simultaneously. For me however, chapters that went backwards and forwards gave the book a choppy feel.
These are my honest impressions. My 3.5 stars means I liked the book.
3.5 stars
Content Warning: Cancer and Dementia
March 22, 2023
A summer night in 1985 changes multiple lives forever, including for siblings Sarah and Theo Wilf, who are teenagers at the time, and their father, Ben, a doctor. Later, new neighbors move to Division Street and have an unexpected interaction with Dr. Wilf. Their son, Waldo, is brilliant though lonely, and it’s hard for his father to accept this, to understand Waldo’s interests and thought process.
Signal Fires moves around in time and POV quite a bit, but it wasn’t hard to follow. I was absorbed in the story and you should know, it’s a Sad one! Even with it’s multiple somber elements, the book is really good with many “what would I do?” moments and themes of family love, grief, secrets and guilt — 4.5 stars
Signal Fires moves around in time and POV quite a bit, but it wasn’t hard to follow. I was absorbed in the story and you should know, it’s a Sad one! Even with it’s multiple somber elements, the book is really good with many “what would I do?” moments and themes of family love, grief, secrets and guilt — 4.5 stars
June 9, 2022
A gripping novel that I finished in one day. I keep thinking about the characters.
November 7, 2022
Dani Shapiro's first work of fiction in 15 years is a beautifully written, poignant story about two families and how their lives are connected.
I didn’t know much about this book when I picked it as an add-on with my BOTM order this month. But how could I resist the story of two families over more than 30 years, full of drama and emotion? I mean, if ever there was a recipe for a perfect “Larry book,” this was it. And it was utterly fantastic!
The book opens in 1985. One summer night, three teenagers are hanging out and drinking when they decide to go for a drive. In a split second, everything changes, and for the Wilf family, the decisions made in the subsequent moments will change all of them.
On New Year’s Eve, as 1999 is about to turn to 2000, Dr. Wilf is pressed into service to deliver a baby for the Shenkmans, a new family in the neighborhood. And years later, as Dr. Wilf prepares to move out of the neighborhood and into assisted living, the two families will be connected again, in myriad ways.
So much more happens in this beautiful story, but it’s best to let it unfold. There are emotional moments, moments of regret and renewal, and an exploration of the ways we are inexorably connected. This is a quietly powerful novel, which reminds me of one of my favorite writers, Ethan Joella, and his ability to create emotion and drama from life’s simple moments.
See all of my reviews at itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com.
Follow me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/getbookedwithlarry/.
I didn’t know much about this book when I picked it as an add-on with my BOTM order this month. But how could I resist the story of two families over more than 30 years, full of drama and emotion? I mean, if ever there was a recipe for a perfect “Larry book,” this was it. And it was utterly fantastic!
The book opens in 1985. One summer night, three teenagers are hanging out and drinking when they decide to go for a drive. In a split second, everything changes, and for the Wilf family, the decisions made in the subsequent moments will change all of them.
On New Year’s Eve, as 1999 is about to turn to 2000, Dr. Wilf is pressed into service to deliver a baby for the Shenkmans, a new family in the neighborhood. And years later, as Dr. Wilf prepares to move out of the neighborhood and into assisted living, the two families will be connected again, in myriad ways.
So much more happens in this beautiful story, but it’s best to let it unfold. There are emotional moments, moments of regret and renewal, and an exploration of the ways we are inexorably connected. This is a quietly powerful novel, which reminds me of one of my favorite writers, Ethan Joella, and his ability to create emotion and drama from life’s simple moments.
See all of my reviews at itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com.
Follow me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/getbookedwithlarry/.
March 25, 2025
4★
“The summer sky is a veil thrown over the moon and stars. The streets are quiet, the good people of Avalon long since tucked in for the night. Their own parents are asleep in their queen-size bed under the plaid afghan knitted by one of their father’s patients. His mom is a deep sleeper, but his dad has been trained by a lifetime as a doctor to bolt awake at the slightest provocation. He is always ready.”
Tonight, his kids have the car, those dreaded teenage hormones kick in, and it’s a good thing the good doctor was ready.
Two families, living across the street from each other, cross paths sometimes but aren’t social friends. Dr Wilf, his wife and two kids have lived in the neighbourhood a long time before the young Shenkman couple move in.
Shenkman is a competitive perfectionist who pushes himself to exhaustion on a rowing machine in his ‘man cave’, apparently using an app to pit himself against another ‘rower’ whom he knows as they race down a virtual river.
“It’s taken him a while to realize that this—the deep twilight blue of the lake, the ripples he imagines are cast by his blades—this is what he’s been looking for. Here, in this gym above his garage, paid for with plastic, here is where he forgets about the rest of his life.”
The timelines and character stories jump around – a lot. I’m usually pretty good with that, but for some reason, I realised I was sometimes forgetting what age the different families were. Their children were not contemporaries.
My interest was in young Waldo Shenkman, born to the new couple across the street from the doctor after the doctor’s kids have grown up. Waldo is adored by his mother, completely misunderstood and therefore disappointing to his father, and a budding, inquisitive science nerd, probably ‘on the spectrum’.
As a young boy, he loved his Star Walk app to trace the night skies. He’s a child who sees the Big Picture, the many connections between us all, between past and present. It makes sense to him, but to his dad, he’s just weird.
Dr Wilf happens to look outside one night at 10:45pm, and sees young Waldo at his window, gazing out at the sky while holding something glowing in his hands. He can see Waldo’s parents in two different rooms. Why is a ten-year-old up so late? They are not like his family was.
“These folks leave first thing in the morning, the father in a brand-new Lexus hybrid, the mother in a Prius—cars that don’t make a sound—and as dusk falls they return, gliding silently into the garage, the automatic doors closing behind them. The boy doesn’t play on the street the way Sarah and Theo used to. None of the neighborhood kids are ever out in their yards. They’re carted around by their parents or nannies, lugging violins or cellos in their cases, dragging backpacks that weigh more than they do. They wear soccer uniforms or spanking white getups, their tiny waists wrapped in colorful karate or jujitsu belts.
‘Hey, kid!’ Ben calls again. ‘What are you doing?’ ”
He and Waldo meet outside, and Waldo shows the doctor his Star Walk app that tracks the night sky and how everything is connected to everything else and to them and to Avalon and to … on and on, he goes, reciting the names of constellations in alphabetical order… until Ben, (Dr Wilf) says it’s time to go to bed for both of them.
“ ‘One more thing,’ Waldo says. ‘Let me just show you one more thing, please?’
Ben’s not sure he can handle one more thing, but what choice does he have? Waldo presses the bottom-right corner of the screen, and now they are flying over the curvature of the earth, skating above the surface of oceans and continents until the entire planet recedes and two neon green lines bisect to show their exact location on the globe. A small neon figure stands in the center of a circle perched on the easternmost edge of the United States, the state of New York, the town of Avalon, the street … their street. Division Street.
‘Here we are,’ Waldo says, pointing to the neon figure. ‘That’s us.’
Ben touches the screen. … From this distance, everything is connected. …
The sky of 1936 to the sky of 2010. From this distance, it seems possible that it’s all happening at once: this life, that life—an immeasurable number of lives all playing themselves out in parallel motion. He is at once a newborn at the Brooklyn Jewish Hospital, a kid playing stickball…”
I couldn’t help being reminded of Samantha Harvey’s 2024 Booker Prize-winning Orbital, with the space station circling the world sixteen times a day, so that everything did seem to be happening all at once. The astronauts saw the big world picture at the same time as they were worrying about their individual families at the pinpoint on Earth that was their home.
This is mostly a story about the people and their relationships and secrets with the added depth of Waldo’s perception. Shapiro shows all of her characters developing, but of course it was Waldo whose story arc I really loved.
I enjoyed it, although the jumping timelines confused me more than I’d like to admit. Within each time heading, there might be six chapters, each devoted to one character. It went from 1985 to 2010 to 1999 to 1985 to 2010 to 2020 to 2010 to 1985 to 2014 to 2020 to 1970.
But, in spite of occasional confusion, I came to agree with Ben, Dr Wilf, who thought back on his night with Waldo. I was reminded of the cultures that see the stars as our ancestors, where we go when we die.
“It was comforting, somehow, sitting beside the small boy who was able to navigate their precise location in the vastness. The stars, rather than appearing distant and implacable, seemed to be signal fires in the dark, mysterious fellow travelers lighting a path; one hundred thousand million luminous presences beckoning from worlds away. ‘See us. We are here. We have always been here. We will always be here.’ ”
“The summer sky is a veil thrown over the moon and stars. The streets are quiet, the good people of Avalon long since tucked in for the night. Their own parents are asleep in their queen-size bed under the plaid afghan knitted by one of their father’s patients. His mom is a deep sleeper, but his dad has been trained by a lifetime as a doctor to bolt awake at the slightest provocation. He is always ready.”
Tonight, his kids have the car, those dreaded teenage hormones kick in, and it’s a good thing the good doctor was ready.
Two families, living across the street from each other, cross paths sometimes but aren’t social friends. Dr Wilf, his wife and two kids have lived in the neighbourhood a long time before the young Shenkman couple move in.
Shenkman is a competitive perfectionist who pushes himself to exhaustion on a rowing machine in his ‘man cave’, apparently using an app to pit himself against another ‘rower’ whom he knows as they race down a virtual river.
“It’s taken him a while to realize that this—the deep twilight blue of the lake, the ripples he imagines are cast by his blades—this is what he’s been looking for. Here, in this gym above his garage, paid for with plastic, here is where he forgets about the rest of his life.”
The timelines and character stories jump around – a lot. I’m usually pretty good with that, but for some reason, I realised I was sometimes forgetting what age the different families were. Their children were not contemporaries.
My interest was in young Waldo Shenkman, born to the new couple across the street from the doctor after the doctor’s kids have grown up. Waldo is adored by his mother, completely misunderstood and therefore disappointing to his father, and a budding, inquisitive science nerd, probably ‘on the spectrum’.
As a young boy, he loved his Star Walk app to trace the night skies. He’s a child who sees the Big Picture, the many connections between us all, between past and present. It makes sense to him, but to his dad, he’s just weird.
Dr Wilf happens to look outside one night at 10:45pm, and sees young Waldo at his window, gazing out at the sky while holding something glowing in his hands. He can see Waldo’s parents in two different rooms. Why is a ten-year-old up so late? They are not like his family was.
“These folks leave first thing in the morning, the father in a brand-new Lexus hybrid, the mother in a Prius—cars that don’t make a sound—and as dusk falls they return, gliding silently into the garage, the automatic doors closing behind them. The boy doesn’t play on the street the way Sarah and Theo used to. None of the neighborhood kids are ever out in their yards. They’re carted around by their parents or nannies, lugging violins or cellos in their cases, dragging backpacks that weigh more than they do. They wear soccer uniforms or spanking white getups, their tiny waists wrapped in colorful karate or jujitsu belts.
‘Hey, kid!’ Ben calls again. ‘What are you doing?’ ”
He and Waldo meet outside, and Waldo shows the doctor his Star Walk app that tracks the night sky and how everything is connected to everything else and to them and to Avalon and to … on and on, he goes, reciting the names of constellations in alphabetical order… until Ben, (Dr Wilf) says it’s time to go to bed for both of them.
“ ‘One more thing,’ Waldo says. ‘Let me just show you one more thing, please?’
Ben’s not sure he can handle one more thing, but what choice does he have? Waldo presses the bottom-right corner of the screen, and now they are flying over the curvature of the earth, skating above the surface of oceans and continents until the entire planet recedes and two neon green lines bisect to show their exact location on the globe. A small neon figure stands in the center of a circle perched on the easternmost edge of the United States, the state of New York, the town of Avalon, the street … their street. Division Street.
‘Here we are,’ Waldo says, pointing to the neon figure. ‘That’s us.’
Ben touches the screen. … From this distance, everything is connected. …
The sky of 1936 to the sky of 2010. From this distance, it seems possible that it’s all happening at once: this life, that life—an immeasurable number of lives all playing themselves out in parallel motion. He is at once a newborn at the Brooklyn Jewish Hospital, a kid playing stickball…”
I couldn’t help being reminded of Samantha Harvey’s 2024 Booker Prize-winning Orbital, with the space station circling the world sixteen times a day, so that everything did seem to be happening all at once. The astronauts saw the big world picture at the same time as they were worrying about their individual families at the pinpoint on Earth that was their home.
This is mostly a story about the people and their relationships and secrets with the added depth of Waldo’s perception. Shapiro shows all of her characters developing, but of course it was Waldo whose story arc I really loved.
I enjoyed it, although the jumping timelines confused me more than I’d like to admit. Within each time heading, there might be six chapters, each devoted to one character. It went from 1985 to 2010 to 1999 to 1985 to 2010 to 2020 to 2010 to 1985 to 2014 to 2020 to 1970.
But, in spite of occasional confusion, I came to agree with Ben, Dr Wilf, who thought back on his night with Waldo. I was reminded of the cultures that see the stars as our ancestors, where we go when we die.
“It was comforting, somehow, sitting beside the small boy who was able to navigate their precise location in the vastness. The stars, rather than appearing distant and implacable, seemed to be signal fires in the dark, mysterious fellow travelers lighting a path; one hundred thousand million luminous presences beckoning from worlds away. ‘See us. We are here. We have always been here. We will always be here.’ ”
January 7, 2023
The Wilf family— physician father, his beautiful wife and two ideal kids — live in a quiet, leafy commuter suburb of New York City. A tragedy opens the book, shattering their idyll even as the family works to forget it ever happened. The kids, Sarah and Theo, grow into adults whose lives seem shiny from the outside. Sarah becomes a powerful Hollywood screenwriter and Theo a celebrated chef. But inside lurks a rotting core of shame and bewilderment. Back in New York, Dr. Wilf is packing up their beloved house, preparing to move to a retirement community where his wife is already residing in the memory care unit. Next door live the Shenkmans, neighbors for a decade who the Wilfs hardly know, except for a chance event nine years before: Dr. Wilf delivered Waldo Shenkman in the kitchen, saving his life in an emergency delivery as the ambulance sirens could be heard screaming into the neighborhood. The baby boy grows into a child with special gifts, but his curious intelligence frustrates his conventional dad. Waldo's search for meaning leads him literally into the night and back into Dr. Wilf's life in a full circle of love and tragedy that brings an estranged family back together again.
Signal Fires eschews chronological storytelling, instead dropping the reader into decades past and present: 1970, 1999, 2014, 1985, 2010, 2020. We see these families' futures before we understand their pasts, and then once we know them, we live in their present, omniscient and anticipatory. Shapiro balances plot and story as a teacher of craft should: one is there to move the other along at an unhurried but unflagging pace.
This is Dani Shapiro's first novel in a dozen years and it's well worth the wait. Like her memoirs, it is a story of families and secrets, rendered in beautiful, clear-eyed prose. Her style is intimate — the characters feel like friends and family, their stories told at the kitchen table with hands wrapped around a hot cup of tea or in a quiet corner of your favorite restaurant over a glass of wine. It is a compassionate and lovely meditation on chance and choice. Highly recommended.
Signal Fires eschews chronological storytelling, instead dropping the reader into decades past and present: 1970, 1999, 2014, 1985, 2010, 2020. We see these families' futures before we understand their pasts, and then once we know them, we live in their present, omniscient and anticipatory. Shapiro balances plot and story as a teacher of craft should: one is there to move the other along at an unhurried but unflagging pace.
This is Dani Shapiro's first novel in a dozen years and it's well worth the wait. Like her memoirs, it is a story of families and secrets, rendered in beautiful, clear-eyed prose. Her style is intimate — the characters feel like friends and family, their stories told at the kitchen table with hands wrapped around a hot cup of tea or in a quiet corner of your favorite restaurant over a glass of wine. It is a compassionate and lovely meditation on chance and choice. Highly recommended.
December 19, 2022
"It’s possible to grow up in the wrong house on the wrong street, in the wrong town, in the wrong part of the country. It is possible to go to the wrong school. Have the wrong Dad. To be pushed to do the wrong things. But it is also possible to survive all these psychic indignities if you have one, maybe two people who recognize you for who you are.”
I first saw this book in a bookstore while Christmas shopping. I’d read about the author’s latest non-fiction but had not heard of this book and was unaware she even wrote novels, but the plot summary on the front flap peaked my interest and I knew I wanted to read it.
This is a family saga told in vignettes by different family members in a very non-linear fashion. The reader knows about events and goes back and forth in time to see not only how these events play out but what came before and how inevitable and connected things are (a little cryptic I know but I’m not going to give plot points here).
It was a very good story, a book I did not want to put down, loved reading and thinking about and one I believe has details that will stick. It reminded me some of Bewilderment by Powers, and I did love the character of Waldo, who at times reminded me of Wooly in the Lincoln Highway. In all it was a 5 star reading experience for me. If you like plot driven stories with great characters I think you will like this as well. Will be looking for more of Dani Shapiro’s back list soon.
I first saw this book in a bookstore while Christmas shopping. I’d read about the author’s latest non-fiction but had not heard of this book and was unaware she even wrote novels, but the plot summary on the front flap peaked my interest and I knew I wanted to read it.
This is a family saga told in vignettes by different family members in a very non-linear fashion. The reader knows about events and goes back and forth in time to see not only how these events play out but what came before and how inevitable and connected things are (a little cryptic I know but I’m not going to give plot points here).
It was a very good story, a book I did not want to put down, loved reading and thinking about and one I believe has details that will stick. It reminded me some of Bewilderment by Powers, and I did love the character of Waldo, who at times reminded me of Wooly in the Lincoln Highway. In all it was a 5 star reading experience for me. If you like plot driven stories with great characters I think you will like this as well. Will be looking for more of Dani Shapiro’s back list soon.
May 30, 2023
I’ve read this author’s memoir and a couple of her earlier fiction novels and I really enjoy her books. For me, this story was a slow climb in the beginning…likely because I listened to an audio and the narrative moves back and forth in a non-chronological structure between 1970 and 2020.
The novel is told from more than a few points of view to gradually reveal the effects of a tragic event in the lives of the Wilf family and its connection to their circle of friends and family. It’s more of a character study than plot driven and includes big themes such as love and marriage, aging, tragedy, loss, and grief. Those events and passages in time were touching and rang true for me.
****3.5 Stars****
The novel is told from more than a few points of view to gradually reveal the effects of a tragic event in the lives of the Wilf family and its connection to their circle of friends and family. It’s more of a character study than plot driven and includes big themes such as love and marriage, aging, tragedy, loss, and grief. Those events and passages in time were touching and rang true for me.
****3.5 Stars****
February 23, 2023
This novel did what almost no other novel can do to me: it was so well written and constructed, so compelling, that it turned me into a regular reader. By that I mean that my editor and writer’s head shut down. I never thought about mechanics, except to enjoy how well the drama built and how expertly everything was rendered. This almost never happens to me, and it made me remember my pure love of reading and feeling.
I found personal memories evoked—the story takes place in an imaginary town in Westchester County, where I grew up. Although my family was completely different from Shapiro’s suburban families, I was in such familiar territory that I often had to stop reading and just lie on the couch and let whatever surged through me surge.
I’ve heard about Dani Shapiro’s memoirs for years but this is my first book by her. I will certainly read more.
I found personal memories evoked—the story takes place in an imaginary town in Westchester County, where I grew up. Although my family was completely different from Shapiro’s suburban families, I was in such familiar territory that I often had to stop reading and just lie on the couch and let whatever surged through me surge.
I’ve heard about Dani Shapiro’s memoirs for years but this is my first book by her. I will certainly read more.
September 19, 2024
Ich fand es so clever, dass zwei Familiengeschichten parallel erzählt wurden, die aber so miteinander verknüpft sind, dass man sie nicht auseinanderhalten kann.
In »Leuchtfeuer« geht es um Trauern und Abschied nehmen und wie kleine Augenblicke das ganze Leben verändern können. Viel mehr geht es aber auch um die einzelnen Familienbeziehungen: Wieso ist ein Vater so gemein zu seinem Sohn? Wieso bekommt ein Kind mehr Liebe als das andere?
Ich fand die Geschichte toll, aber nicht großartig. Sie wird aktuell verfilmt und ich denke, dass es als Serie besser funktioniert. Von mir bekommt das Buch 3/5🌟
Disclaimer: Ich habe gestern zugeschickt bekommen, dass die Autorin Israel supportet. Unter diesen Umständen kann ich das Buch/die Autorin nicht weiterempfehlen.)
In »Leuchtfeuer« geht es um Trauern und Abschied nehmen und wie kleine Augenblicke das ganze Leben verändern können. Viel mehr geht es aber auch um die einzelnen Familienbeziehungen: Wieso ist ein Vater so gemein zu seinem Sohn? Wieso bekommt ein Kind mehr Liebe als das andere?
Ich fand die Geschichte toll, aber nicht großartig. Sie wird aktuell verfilmt und ich denke, dass es als Serie besser funktioniert. Von mir bekommt das Buch 3/5🌟
Disclaimer: Ich habe gestern zugeschickt bekommen, dass die Autorin Israel supportet. Unter diesen Umständen kann ich das Buch/die Autorin nicht weiterempfehlen.)
October 21, 2022
Boring horrible and the author totally lost my sympathy when they injected their political beliefs. I will never read another book by this author again.
September 20, 2022
On a summer night in a quiet suburban town, three teenagers go driving and end up crashing into a tree leaving one of them dead. In the aftermath, each member of the Wilf family will make a choice which will shape the rest of their lives.
Years later, the Shenkman family moves in next door and becomes entangled with the Wilf family due to circumstances beyond their control. As the years go by, the Shenkman family struggles with how to understand their son who has a love for, and understanding of the stars and universe, while unable to relate to the people around him.
Moving between past and present, the connections between the two families are explored as are the ways in which both families are suffering as they try to move forward.
A deeply moving look at damaged families, how secrets destroy and how one special boy understands how we are all connected. This is a book that will stay with you. - Jennifer C.
Years later, the Shenkman family moves in next door and becomes entangled with the Wilf family due to circumstances beyond their control. As the years go by, the Shenkman family struggles with how to understand their son who has a love for, and understanding of the stars and universe, while unable to relate to the people around him.
Moving between past and present, the connections between the two families are explored as are the ways in which both families are suffering as they try to move forward.
A deeply moving look at damaged families, how secrets destroy and how one special boy understands how we are all connected. This is a book that will stay with you. - Jennifer C.
May 3, 2022
The stars, rather than appearing distant and implacable, seemed to be signal fires in the dark, mysterious fellow travelers lighting a path; one hundred thousand million luminous presences beckoning from worlds away. See us. We are here. We have always been here. We will always be here.
I admire what I’ve read of Dani Shapiro’s nonfiction, so I was excited to read her latest novel Signal Fires. Starting with a car accident that will have long-lasting repercussions for one (formerly happy, “normal”) suburban family, the plot jumps POV and the timeline (from the ‘70s to Y2K to COVID lockdowns and back again), and with further dramatic events coincidentally joining neighbours together across the years, Shapiro makes the point that we are all connected: like spiderwebs; like supergalaxies; like signal fires. There are many relatable and touching scenes set inside larger, dramatic storylines, and with characters who are mostly dissatisfied with the choices they’ve made in their lives, this is a narrative that weighed heavily on my heart as I read it. I believed everything Shapiro writes about families and how individual choices can have far-reaching consequences, but there were also some quasi-mystical underpinnings that, if Shapiro wanted me to take them literally, and I believe she did, my mind was resistant to them. As a straight storyline: totally readable. If I was looking for deeper meaning: not quite satisfied. I’d rate 3.5 stars and am rounding up because it did make me feel something. (Note: I read an ARC through NetGalley and passages quoted may not be in their final forms.)
He’d like to take this suspended moment — the new millennium already careening inexorably forward — and roll it back instead. Back, back through layers of time to a split second when things could have gone differently, if only they had known. There must be that second, bobbing and darting in the aliveness of their shared history, unmistakable, glowing like a firefly in the darkness. If only they could pinpoint it and stop it there, right there, at the small but indelible spot that somehow they missed the first time around, if only, then perhaps their whole family could begin again.
I don’t want to say much about the plot (which did always hold my interest) but want to reiterate that, for me, Signal Fires was all about the mood: the things that were never talked about (but which found ways to express themselves anyway); the families that fractured; the children that hurt (even as adults). There’s something sad about the suburbs here — the big house brings money worries, a long commute back into the city, isolation from neighbours — and as the houses on the street flip owners over the years, the only constants are the big oak tree (whose history, increasingly, no one remembers) and the constellations coldly marching through their houses in the sky. It will take a pandemic — and forced isolation — for characters to remember not to take their interpersonal bonds for granted (but while COVID makes an appearance as an outer reality, this is not a pandemic novel). The family dynamics and drama worked for me, completely.
“Yeah,” Waldo says. He’s looking straight ahead, though not at anything in particular. “Everything is connected. Everything. The lady. The doctor. Me. You. It’s like we’re part of a galactic supercluster.”
And I don’t really want to call out the particulars of the “quasi-mystical underpinnings” other than to note that while I am open to the possibility for grace and karma and synchronicity in real life, I am resistant to such things being made manifest in an otherwise straightforward, reality-based novel. (Resistant enough that I may eventually downgrade this to three stars.) Overall, I did like this very much, and as I think that Dani Shapiro is an excellent writer, I would be pleased to read more of her work.
December 24, 2022
Thank you PRHAudio for the complimentary audiobook!
This audiobook was a good listen. I enjoyed getting to know all of the characters and their life as they grow into adulthood. This story was told in a timeline, starting when Theo was 15 and driving illegally. He was given his parents' car keys by his older sister. The joy ride ended up fatal and a lie ensued. Then the story jumped to the future where Theo's dad is alone watching out of his house's window. He gave his time and patience to a neighbor Waldo, 11 year old gifted boy who loves stars. A new view of Waldo's dad exercising in the garage. Another view of Theo's sister, at 40 visiting her dad without announcing her visit. Then the timeline went back to the birth of Waldo. Then forward to Waldo at 11 and running away because he overheard his parents' unsavory plans for him. Then Theo as an adult receiving a phone call from his sister letting him know that their elderly mom went missing. She has Alzheimer. The family was worried sick and didn't find her until too late but luckily she wasn't alone.
I like the story but the timeline is dizzying. It's present day, past, and future and multiple characters. However, I was able to follow the audiobook so the story was good and got me cry a few times. Waldo is so sweet. I admire Ben's marriage but I don't like that their family don't communicate enough.
Is there a book you choose to read versus listen and vice versa?
This audiobook was a good listen. I enjoyed getting to know all of the characters and their life as they grow into adulthood. This story was told in a timeline, starting when Theo was 15 and driving illegally. He was given his parents' car keys by his older sister. The joy ride ended up fatal and a lie ensued. Then the story jumped to the future where Theo's dad is alone watching out of his house's window. He gave his time and patience to a neighbor Waldo, 11 year old gifted boy who loves stars. A new view of Waldo's dad exercising in the garage. Another view of Theo's sister, at 40 visiting her dad without announcing her visit. Then the timeline went back to the birth of Waldo. Then forward to Waldo at 11 and running away because he overheard his parents' unsavory plans for him. Then Theo as an adult receiving a phone call from his sister letting him know that their elderly mom went missing. She has Alzheimer. The family was worried sick and didn't find her until too late but luckily she wasn't alone.
I like the story but the timeline is dizzying. It's present day, past, and future and multiple characters. However, I was able to follow the audiobook so the story was good and got me cry a few times. Waldo is so sweet. I admire Ben's marriage but I don't like that their family don't communicate enough.
Is there a book you choose to read versus listen and vice versa?
March 15, 2024
Got COVID (again). The whole family does. So I won't even try to write a coherent review. I liked the book a lot -- more than I thought I would when I first picked it up -- thought it very moving and insightful. Shapiro does a fine job capturing the moral and psychological complexities of lives lived in the aftermath of a tragic accident (young teens joyriding). In other hands I imagine the story could easily have become melodramatic or maudlin. "Signal Fires" elevates the story above that. Shapiro tells the story with intelligence, grace, and compassion.
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