BookLife Review: Signal Fires, by Dani Shapiro

family secret, tragedy, trauma, suppressed shame, grief, guilt, dementia, astrology

Author Dani Shapiro (bestseller, Inheritance) (@daniwriter) delivers Signal Fires, a family drama where a tragic accident becomes a buried, never-spoken-about secret. The tragedy burrows into the psyches of the family members, causing damage and pain over decades. Shapiro masterfully explodes the chronology to probe the impact of suppressed shame and grief, dissecting the grief by each character's age and stage.

The B story, of the genius boy neighbor, whose life intersects theirs, is rich and warm, even in its lonely outsider tones. Shapiro deftly explores loneliness and connection and the serendipity of the litany of small choices that can, and do, alter the paths our lives take.