num_pages: 96
description: How do we even begin to narrate the history of the world? Where do we start and where do we end? Fireflies is Sagastis bold and original attempt to answer these questions. Taking an eclectic array of influences and personalities from modern history he teases out events that at first glance seem random and insignificant and proceeds to weave them together masterfully entertaining as he enlightens. Joseph Beuys Antoine de Saint-Exupry Stanley Kubrick Neil Armstrong Wittgenstein Glenn Miller and the Beatles; poets and authors priests astronauts and Russian sailors all make an appearance and Sagasti finds common threads to bind their stories together. The fireflies themselves perhaps provide the key to understanding this book. They become a metaphor for the resistance of certain luminous moments certain twinkling fragments of history to the passing of time. They remind us that events do not always disappear neatly into the darkness but rather remain floating in the air lighting up the night sky for years to come. Sagasti shows us that the present moment like this novel is a tapestry woven of a multiplicity of times.Using his unique poetic and keenly observant style Sagasti turns the accidents of history into a single lyrical constellation and for the reader its an extraordinary sight.
language: English
title: Fireflies
publisher: Charco Press