The book
Grief is like an inside joke: you have to have been there to really get it.
The only things Cassandra knows about her family are the stories she’s heard in snatches over the years: about the aunt and cousin she never got to meet, about the man from the folded-up photograph in one of her aunt’s drawers, and of course about her cousin Chevy, and why he never speaks – but no one utters a word about them any more.
When a call from one of her sisters brings Cassandra news of Chevy’s death, she has to return home for the funeral. To Toronto and the big house on Florence Street, where her sisters are hiding more than themselves in their rooms, where the tension brewing between her mother and aunts has been decades in the making, and where sooner or later every secret, unspoken word and painful memory will find its way out into the open.
Moving between Toronto and Trinidad, WILD FIRES is a vivid and compelling story exploring the ways we mourn and why we avoid the very things that can save us.
“A moving and compelling novel that explores a family’s grief through both their shared stories and the words that should have stayed unspoken” – LOUISE HARE, author of This Lovely City.
Get the book here in the UK, pre-order it here in Canada by clicking on the SHOP LOCAL button (the exact US launch date is still TBD) or read an excerpt here from the publisher.
The author
Sophie Jai was selected as a 2020 Writer-in-Residence and Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford for WILD FIRES, and was longlisted for the 2019 Bridport Prize Peggy Chapman-Andrews Award for a First Novel. Jai was born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago. She splits her time between Toronto and London. WILD FIRES is Sophie Jai’s debut novel.
The event
This is the novel’s Canadian launch to celebrate the book ahead of its publication in Canada in August 2022. The event will feature the book’s author, Sophie Jai, in conversation with Tiara Chutkhan, a writer and book blogger of Indo-Caribbean heritage. It will also feature an audience Q&A, a book signing and a custom WILD FIRES cocktail for everyone to enjoy.
Event details
Hosted by: Toronto Lit Up (a book launch series showcasing Toronto writers throughout the year at various venues across the city, organized by the Toronto International Festival of Authors and the Toronto Arts Council)
Featured author: Sophie Jai, in conversation with Tiara Chutkhan
Featured book: ‘WILD FIRES’, published in August 2022 by HarperCollins Canada
Type of event: Book launch
Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022
Time: 7:00 PM ET
Cost: free
Location: Famous Last Words, a literary-themed cocktail bar in Toronto’s Junction neighbourhood.
Address: 392 Pacific Avenue, Toronto, ON, M6P 2R1.
Registration link: Register here!
Contact Details: Famous Last Words Bar, Eventbrite Registration Link