Fire Season - by Hollye Dexter (Paperback)

About the Book

After she loses everything in a fire, Hollye Dexter's life spirals downward--and she begins to unravel. When she finds herself at the brink of losing her husband, she is forced to dig within herself for the strength to keep her family together, even as her life is falling apart.

Book Synopsis

Who would you be if you lost everything? Hollye Dexter and her husband Troy woke one night to find their house ablaze. To escape the fire, they had to jump from their second-story window with their toddler son--and then watch their house and home-based businesses burn to the ground. Over the next two years, the family went bankrupt, lost their cars and another home, and got dropped by their best friends. As the outer layers of her life were stripped away, Dexter began to unravel emotionally; but then she found herself on the brink of losing her marriage, and she realized that if she was going to save her family, she would have to pull herself back together somehow. As she fought to reassemble the pieces of the life she'd had, Dexter discovered that a shattered heart has the ability to regenerate in a mighty way; that even in the midst of disaster, you can find your place; and that when everything you identify with is gone, you are free to discover who you really are. Poignant and inspiring, Fire Season is a story for anyone who has ever lost hope--and found it again.

Review Quotes

"Hollye Dexter's book made me cry and laugh--sometimes all within one paragraph. She tells her story with power and punch, and a truth that is unsettling and astonishing and ultimately uplifting. There isn't a soul who can't relate to her memoir. It is filled with revelations, humanity, poignancy, balls-out courage, and humor. She is a role model extraordinaire."
--Amy Ferris, screenwriter (Mr. Wonderful, Funny Valentines), playwright, and author of Marrying George Clooney

"In Fire Season, Hollye Dexter gives me no choice but to experience fully and passionately the horrors of a house on fire, and to remember that how we face tragedy often defines who we are. As I read about a childhood fraught with loneliness and pain, and how she fought with valor to attain the love and trust she deserved, I was reminded of the phoenix. Dexter did what so many of us can only imagine: literally rising from the ashes and beginning anew. This memoir is a reminder that the joys of life are based not on what we possess, but what we appreciate."
--Victoria Zackheim, author of The Bone Weaver and Exit Laughing

"Fire Season will take your breath away and singe your fingertips from turning the pages so quickly. Like Dexter, you'll fall madly in love with her husband, Troy, who could "rock the world off its axis" and right it again. Musician that she is, Dexter's prose sings in this beautiful and complicated love story, a story that inspires both tenderness and courage, and a deep belief that we can all, like the phoenix and the author, rise from the ashes."
--Amy Friedman, author of Desperado's Wife: A Memoir