Awards

• Short-listed for Rachel Carson Environment Book Award 2021

Overview

On November 8, 2018, a town of 27,000 people was swallowed by the ferocious Camp Fire. Fire in Paradise is an intimate account of Paradise, California, and a community lost to devastating wildfire. What happened in Paradise was unprecedented in America. Yet, according to climate scientists and fire experts, it will surely happen again.

Full Product Details

9780393542165

Table of Contents

Reviews

Fire in Paradise is the detailed reportage of people suddenly caught in a catastrophe that is spreading worldwide wherever there are forests-uncontrollable wildfire. This is a frightening book that will make readers take stock of their own home surroundings, regional infrastructure, and the values of our times. -- Annie Proulx, author of Barkskins The Paradise fire will stay in our collective memory; like Hurricane Katrina, it was a landmark moment in coming to see the changes that we've wrought by shifting our climate. This remarkable account will drive home the human cost, as well as remind you of the power of the human spirit, even, or especially, in a crisis. -- Bill McKibben, author of Falter Fire in Paradise is not only a riveting narrative of the unprecedented but long-predicted disaster of the Camp Fire and the tragedy it wrought on a California town, but a thorough analysis of the histories that led to the disaster, a detailed look at its continuing consequences, and a glimpse of the harrowing, fiery future that western communities face. -- Michael Kodas, author of Megafire Gee and Anguiano's on-the-ground reporting from California's deadliest wildfire is so riveting and evocative that you can almost smell the smoke-not just from the oaks and pines, but from all the scorched vinyl-sided homes, melted car tires, and exploding propane tanks. Their account of how a city of 27,000 burned to the ground in a matter of hours reads like a thriller-full of daring escapes, life-saving heroics, staggering loss of life, and bad actors. It's also crucial. As the world warms, cities across the arid West are increasingly at risk of suffering a fate similar to Paradise. -- Dan Egan, author of The Death and Life of the Great Lakes A gripping and meticulously reported account of how one California community was wiped from the map, and a terrifying bellwether of the mounting personal costs of the world's climate emergency. -- Adam Higginbotham, author of Midnight in Chernobyl Powerful...A riveting narrative that provides further compelling evidence for the urgency of environmental stewardship. -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) A tense and detailed account...Gee and Anguiano vividly describe the conflagration without sensationalizing it...This impressive report makes a convincing case that such tragedies as the Camp Fire are not a freak occurrence, but a glimpse of the future. -- Publishers Weekly Drawing heavily on the powerful interviews they conducted at the time and in the stunned aftermath, [Gee and Anguiano] have created a gripping account of the fire and how it affected the community. -- Booklist A vividly descriptive, compelling, well-researched, page-turning work of narrative nonfiction, both heartbreaking and uplifting -- Library Journal Gripping...The scale of the disaster is enormous, but the authors' focus on individual survival lends the book harrowing intimacy. -- Shelf Awareness A page-turner from the get-go...The details of [the locals'] lives lend verisimilitude sure to hook the most callous of observers. -- Oakland Magazine Gripping...Fire in Paradise has the narrative propulsion and granular detail of the best breaking-news disaster journalism. -- Rachel Monroe - New York Times Book Review A crisp, intimate portrait of the catastrophe. -- Gregory Crouch - Wall Street Journal A book about a California calamity that speaks to our present moment...With one voice, [Gee and Anguiano] tell a story that is both sweeping in scope and vivid in its particulars -- Carolyn Kellogg - Washington Post A gripping ticktock account...Fire in Paradise covers the history of that part of California and the influence of climate change on these disasters, but at its core are visceral individual stories of bravery and tragedy. -- John Williams - New York Times

[Alastair Gee and Dani Anguiano's] account, based on interviews with residents, firefighters and academics, is horrendous, especially the section 'Hell', describing the fire minute by searing minute. It confirms how humans, not nature, are responsible for disasters... -- Andrew Robinson: Five of the Week's Best Science Picks - Nature

Author Information

Dani Anguiano writes for the Guardian and was a reporter for the Chico Enterprise-Record. She lives in the San Francisco Bay area. Alastair Gee is an award-winning editor and reporter at the Guardian who has also written for The New Yorker online, the New York Times, and the Economist.

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