The Arsonist

Praise

“Entertaining. . . . Fantastic sizzle, both sexual and spiritual. . . . A cracking good romance.” —The Boston Globe

“Affecting. . . . Ambitious. . . . [Told with] humor and real sweetness. . . . [Miller] demonstrate[s] that domestic fiction needn’t be domesticated.” —Washington Post

“A page-turner. . . . Miller excels at portraying the ways in which people connect, and just miss connecting.” —Chicago Tribune

“Full of Miller’s signature intelligence about people caught between moral responsibility and a hunger for self-realization.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Provocative, suspenseful and emotional. . . . [Miller’s] portrayal of the fragility of relationships and fear of the unknown—of the things that happen to and around us that we can’t control—are spot-on.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune

“[Miller] has an elegant way with prose. Her descriptions never feel writerly, but intricate and real, and her sentences flow like a summer river. . . . There’s a kindness to her writing, a sort of authorial gentleness; though never saccharine or sentimental, we see the goodness in the people she creates. . . . She’s the kind of author who creates, for us, a home on the page.” —The Seattle Times

“Moving and convincing. . . . [Miller] is an eloquent chronicler of the complexities of ordinary relationships, whose informal language belies the depths of her insights. . . . [Her] prose, narrated in the third person . . .  is colloquial and homely. . . . [She] nails the contradictory emotions and desires that are responsible for people so often bypassing the seemingly easy road to happiness.” —The Independent (London)

“Miller [eschews] easy cliff-hangers or narrative deceits. The momentum grows instead from her compassionate handling of these characters. . . . Not all questions are answered, nor all mysteries solved, but the end of the book is imbued with the same quiet energy that’s been building throughout; it’s not happy, exactly—that would be too easy—but, in true Sue Miller fashion, it’s triumphant.” —Elle

“Written in a style that is both graceful and accessible, this enthralling novel grabs your attention and never lets it go.” —Real Simple

“Moving . . . profoundly satisfying. . . . In another writer’s hands The Arsonist would be a thriller, but Miller is concerned with deeper mysteries of human motivation.” —The Daily Telegraph (London)

“Miller writes with penetrating honesty. . . . With a deft, homespun acuity.” —The Guardian (London)

‘This isn’t a conventional mystery book. . . . It’s intense, building toward resolutions that answer some questions but not all. Miller’s pacing is perfect, making The Arsonist a pleasurable slow burn of a read.” —San Antonio Express-News

“Miller’s prose . . . keeps you reading. Her sentences have a sumptuous quality to them.” —Providence Journal-Bulletin