Hotshot: A Life on Fire

Former firefighter Selby debuts with a fierce examination of identity, climate change, and the shortcomings of U.S. fire policy. At 19, Selby turned to firefighting as an escape from their emotionally abusive upbringing, having already fled home several times and developed an alcohol habit as a teenager. Over the next seven years, Selby battled blazes across the American west, including in California’s Sequoia National Forest and remote corners of Utah. They alternate descriptions of the backbreaking work of firefighting with profiles of their mostly male colleagues, accounts of their struggles with bulimia, and reflections on their dawning realization that America’s suppression-based fire practices were “both ugly and intimately interconnected” with “the impact of colonization on ecological landscapes and Native Americans.” “I couldn’t see that the landscape needed cleansing by the flames I was supposed to extinguish,” Selby writes, artfully paralleling their belief that excessive fire suppression worsens wildfire seasons and their growing resolve to stop pushing down their own emotions. Poetic, wise, and haunting, this seamless blend of memoir and science writing leaves a mark. Agent: Chris Bucci, Aevitas Creative Management. (Aug.)