Today I’m part of the Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tour for Mary F. Burns’ EMBER DAYS. I am still in the middle of reading this book (to be honest!) but it is a glimpse into life in California in the late 1950’s.

Here’s the overview from HFVBTours with a You Tube video:

Ember Days
by Mary F. Burns

Publication Date: April 1, 2016
Word by Word Press
eBook & Paperback; 352 Pages

Genre: Literary Fiction

 

 

On the edge of the cultural earthquake that would be the 1960s, the tiny coastal village of Mendocino can feel it coming. Beat poetry, jazz, rebellion and art are spilling out of San Francisco onto the the northern coasts of California. World War II is laid to rest, but people feel restless. When a village son, now a priest, comes home to bury his mother, he finds his younger brother gone and a town full of secrets—some of them his own. Ember Days—the ancient prayers that mark the changing of the seasons—reveal the heart’s deep longings and fears in the face of truth and change, life and death.

 

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So – this overview above sounds a little serious, but the book moves quickly and is almost a bit of a mystery. How did the fires start and why? Where did the brother go? How are these characters going to change and develop and how will their trajectories impact the others?

Of course I love anything taking place in northern California since that’s where I grew up, but even more I love a good character story, and that’s what EMBER DAYS is.

About the Author

Mary F. Burns is the author of ISAAC AND ISHMAEL, published by Sand Hill Review Press in November 2014. Other historical fiction includes THE SPOILS OF AVALON and PORTRAITS OF AN ARTIST (Sand Hill Review Press, February 2014, 2013), both books featuring the celebrated portrait painter, John Singer Sargent and his best friend, writer Violet Paget (aka Vernon Lee). Mary is a member of and book reviewer for the Historical Novel Society and a former member of the HNS Conference board of directors. Her debut historical novel J-THE WOMAN WHO WROTE THE BIBLE was published in July 2010 by O-Books (John Hunt Publishers, UK). She has been a regular panelist and speaker at the North American Historical Novel Society Conference.

Ms. Burns was born in Chicago, Illinois, grew up in the western suburb of LaGrange, and attended Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, where she earned both Bachelors and Masters degrees in English; she also holds a law degree from Golden Gate University in San Francisco.

 

Thank you for my review copy and for making me part of the tour!