The Fire Starters

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Summary

**WINNER of the EU Prize for Literature**

'One of the most exciting and original Northern Irish writers of her generation' SUNDAY TIMES

'Gripping, affecting, surprising. I inhaled it' LISA MCINERNEY

'Captivating, intelligent and courageous' IRISH TIMES

'Spectacular. At once grittily real, wildly magical and insanely alluring - a siren-song of a novel.' DONAL RYAN

'Jan Carson seems to have invented a new Belfast in this gripping, surprising, exhilarating novel.' RODDY DOYLE

'Blew me away with its power, anger and wit.' JOSEPH O'CONNOR

Dr Jonathan Murray fears his new-born daughter is not as harmless as she seems.

Sammy Agnew is wrestling with his dark past, and fears the violence in his blood lurks in his son, too.

The city is in flames and the authorities are losing control. As matters fall into frenzy, and as the lines between fantasy and truth, right and wrong, begin to blur, who will these two fathers choose to protect?

Dark, propulsive and thrillingly original, this tale of fierce familial love and sacrifice fizzes with magic and wonder.

Reviews

Gripping, affecting, surprising. I inhaled it.
Lisa McInerney

About the author

Jan Carson

Jan Carson is a writer based in Belfast. Her first novel, Malcolm Orange Disappears, was published in 2014 to critical acclaim, followed by a short-story collection, Children's Children (2016), and two flash fiction anthologies, Postcard Stories (2017) and Postcard Stories 2 (2020). Her second novel, The Fire Starters (2019), won the EU Prize for Literature and was shortlisted for the Dalkey Novel of the Year Award and her third novel, The Raptures (2022) was shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards Novel of the Year and the Kerry Group Novel of the Year. Her most recent short story collection, Quickly, While They Still Have Horses, was published in 2024. Her work has appeared in numerous journals and on BBC Radio 3 and 4. She has won the Harper's Bazaar short-story competition and has been shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award, the An Post Irish Short Story of the Year, and the Seán Ó Faoláin Short Story Prize.

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