Firefighters walk boldly into battle against the most capricious of elements. Their daughters, mothers, sisters and wives walk through the world with another kind of strength and another kind of sorrow, and no one knows that better than the women of the Keegan-O’Reilly clan. In ASHES OF FIERY WEATHER, debut novelist Kathleen Donohoe takes us from famine-era Ireland to New York City a decade after 9/11, illuminating the passionate loves and tragic losses of six generations of women in a firefighting family.

Here is a tour de force in the tradition of LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN. Exquisitely attuned to the language, humor and history of her own firefighting family, Donohoe presents portraits of seven unforgettable characters --- laying bare the many ways we search for each other, and the many ways we hope to be rescued.