After the Fire: A Novel Hardcover - 2003

From the publisher

Based on real wildfires, and real tragedies, Daniel Robinson delivers a
chilling, vivid nightmare in this powerful first novel of loss, guilt, andrecovery.

Barnes, the supervisor of a Hot Shot wildfire suppression crew is haunted bythe season past, when many members of his dedicated, young team were killed
in a Colorado forest fire that went all wrong, scorching the Hot Shots asthey fled, some as they struggled into their fire shelters. He wakes each
morning in the presence of their ghosts as they proceed across his bedroomor assemble at his kitchen table, their eyes asking questions that he cannot
answer. As he tries to unravel the threads of what happened-what wentwrong-he relives the deadly fire again and again in his mind.

Barnes's responsibility for the lost lives is an unbearable weight upon him, lightened only by his neighbor, a little girl named Grace, who lives with
her mother and grandfather. This family of three has its own struggles, andBarnes is able to help each of them through the simple act of friendship
and, finally, one lucky act of salvation. But it is they who save him, ultimately, and as Barnes becomes more deeply enmeshed in their lives, he
understands that the ghosts may not be with him forever.

About the author