![Cover of This is the Night Our House Will Catch Fire | A Memoir by Nick Flynn](https://nickflynn.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/This-is-the-Night-Our-House-Will-Catch-Fire-A-Memoir-by-Nick-Flynn.jpg)
This Is The Night Our House Will Catch Fire is one of those rare books that you will press into the hands of those you love, those whom you never want to lose. It is a stunning achievement.
―andre dubus iii
When Nick Flynn was a child, his mother set fire to their home. With the spare lyricism and dark irony of his classic, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, Flynn excavates the wobbly terrain of his early life. Now a parent himself, he discovers that he too may be burning his house down. He returns with his young daughter to the landscape of his youth, reflecting on how his “feral childhood” has him still in its reins. This Is the Night Our House Will Catch Fire confronts Flynn’s struggle and his failings with fierce candor. His marriage in crisis, Flynn seeks answers from his therapist, who tells him: “You have the ethics of a drowning man.” Alternating literary analysis and philosophy with intimate memoir and the bedtime stories he tells his daughter, Flynn probes his deepest ethical dilemmas.
[some praise] A remarkable and daring work (Kirkus (starred)); Outstanding (Publishers Weekly (starred)); A blazing work of confession, grief, wonder, and hope (Booklist); We need this book, now more than ever. (Dorothy Allison); Master of the lyric memoir (Melissa Febos); I read it on the edge of my seat (Dani Shapiro); Full of miracles, grace, splendor, and fire (Major Jackson). Included on several “best-of / must-read” lists, including: Time, Apple Books, Amazon, Elle, LitHub, NewCity Lit.
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