How Fires End: A Novel

Written by Marco Rafalà

Narrated by Angelo Di Loreto

A dark secret born out of World War II lies at the heart of a Sicilian American family in this emotional and sweeping saga of guilt, revenge, and, ultimately, redemption.

After soldiers vacate the Sicilian hillside town of Melilli in the summer of 1943, the locals celebrate, giving thanks to their patron saint, Sebastian. Amid the revelry, all it takes is one fateful moment for the destiny of nine-year-old Salvatore Vassallo to change forever. When his twin brothers are killed playing with an unexploded mortar shell, Salvatore’s faith is destroyed. As the family unravels, and fear ignites among their neighbors that the Vassallo name is cursed, one tragedy begets another.

Desperate to escape this haunting legacy, Salvatore accepts the help of an Italian soldier with fascist ties who ushers him and his sister, Nella, into a new beginning in America. In Middletown, Connecticut, in the immigrant neighborhood known as Little Melilli, these three struggle to build new lives for themselves. But a dangerous choice to keep their secrets hidden erupts in violence decades later. When Salvatore loses his inquisitive American-born son, David, they all learn too late the price sons pay for their fathers’ wars.

Written with elegiac prose, How Fires End delves into the secret wars of men; the sins they cannot bury; and a life lived in fear of who will reveal them, who will survive them, and who will forgive them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Oct 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9781799748779

Marco Rafalà

Marco Rafalà is a first-generation Sicilian American novelist and writer for tabletop role-playing games. He earned his MFA in Fiction from The New School and is a cocurator of the Guerrilla Lit Reading Series in New York City. Born in Middletown, Connecticut, he now lives in Brooklyn, New York. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in the Bellevue Literary Review and Literary Hub. His debut novel, How Fires End, was a 2020 Connecticut Book Awards finalist and honorable mention and won the 2021 Italian American Studies Association Book Award.

Reviews for How Fires End

[bettytaylor56 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Marco Rafalà paints a masterpiece with words.“A dark secret born out of World War II lies at the heart of a Sicilian American family in this emotional and sweeping saga of guilt, revenge, and, ultimately, redemption.”HOW FIRES END is the debut novel of this stunningly talented author. I had to keep reminding myself over and over that is a debut novel. The writing is superb, and I was quickly drawn into the story of this family.Written from the perspectives of Salvatore, his sister Nella, his son David, and his friend Vincenzo the story begins in Middletown, Connecticut where the families settled over time. After the shocking ending of the first section, we are then thrown back in time to postwar Melilli, Sicily where nine-year-old Salvatore’s twin brothers are killed by a mortar shell and the lives of two families would be forever changed. Like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle the reader is able to slowly piece together fragments of the story and eventually unravel the secrets that have affected the families over generations. The book ends in Middletown as the consequence of the long buried secrets is realized.At times my breath was taken away as I felt the heartaches the Vassallo family endured. I was frustrated with the betrayals and the price that sons had to pay for their fathers’ wars. This is a culture where nothing is stronger than family, yet family can be destroyed by pride and senseless revenge. I kept hoping the families involved would recognize this before being completely destroyed. This multi-generational story is artfully woven through with the background of the families and descriptions of the Sicilian landscape, the traditional foods and rich culture, and old-world religion. I highly recommend this book and suspect the characters will linger in your memories for some time.

[susan0316 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This beautifully written novel is about secrets and how they can affect a family through the generations. It's told in three parts - David, the son; Salvatore, the father and Vincenzo, a friend and father figure who helped bring Salvatore and his sister Nella from Sicily to America at the end of WWII. Even though they are a loving family they all struggle with the secrets that they keep from David.It's very interesting the way that the author told this story -- first we see the outcome of keeping secrets and then we learn the secrets and the reasons for hiding the secrets after the war. The three of them agree that they won't discuss what happened to them in Sicily during the war to the next generation and even though their reasons make sense, the result of that decision is catastrophic and they all learn too late that the price that was paid for their secrets was too high.This is a story of war and secrets, family betrayals and family curses that can cause irreparable harm when they are carried into the next generation. The writing is beautiful and the descriptions of Sicily are incredible. I highly recommend this beautiful novel about family and secrets.Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.