num_pages: 256
description: In this fluid, often witty novel set on a small rural island off the coast of Vancouver, five solitary women at different stages in life learn how to function alone as well as together. Canadian-Japanese Karen, who has left her lesbian lover of eight years, befriends Red, a young woman with an unknown background who cleans houses for three others--acrid Milly, divorced by her husband after a 20-year marriage; Henrietta, whose husband is institutionalized in Vancouver; and Miss James, an eccentric, elderly spinster. Birth, illness and death follow one another, uniting the five independent and incisively drawn protagonists. "All that time I was trying to teach you how to live alone and really take care of yourself, I was teaching myself, too," Henrietta tells Red. The resulting warmth is not saccharine but realistic, as Rule illuminates the vagaries and pain of abandonment and loss, and the fragile joy of new bonds.
language: English
title: After the Fire
titlecomplete: After the Fire
genres: LGBT, Lesbian, Queer, 20th Century, Fiction, Canada
ratings_count: 166
awards: awardedAt: 631180800000
name: Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, awardedAt: 599644800000
name: Lambda Literary Award
category: Lesbian Fiction
publisher: Naiad Pr