Hotshot

Praise for Hotshot: ""Selby molds personal and ecological acceptance into a moving narrative about fire and humanity . . . With visceral prose, they bring readers directly to the heat and intensity of the front lines day and night . . . Shot through with their own challenges of bulimia, alcoholism, and relationships, the story is one of power and resilience, of someone struggling to make a life for themself in the inhospitable and challenging career of wildland firefighting. Spliced within it are historical and scientific examinations of firefighting in the American West. Deeply researched, these segments provide context for the book, but it is the narrative that is most gripping. With fortitude and admirable vulnerability, Selby brings readers directly into a tumultuous time and place. Like fire, this book burns hot.""--Kirkus Reviews, starred review What a wonderful, compassionate, sharply observed, beautifully researched, open-hearted book. Selby has lived a big, courageous life, and that largesse is evident on every page, in the form of the rigor and curiosity of the narrative voice. Ostensibly about fire-fighting, Hotshot turns out to be a beautiful reflection on justice, the environment, the self, and much more.""--George Saunders, Booker Prize-winning and #1 New York Times Bestselling author of Lincoln in the Bardo ""River Selby is the real deal. A writer who seems fearless, who is honest and fierce--and this stunning memoir of fighting wildfires is spectacular . . . and alive with grit and action and poetry.""--Luis Alberto Urrea, Pulitzer Prize-finalist and New York Times Bestselling author of Good Night, Irene ""Hotshot is that rare species: a memoir of young adulthood and a clear-eyed take on wildland preservation from a naturalist who learned on the job. And what a job it was: the kind where a colleague tells you unironically to keep going, because you're not dead yet. You can smell the smoke and feel the grit on the back of your neck, and the lessons--of which there are many--feel hard won and very timely. Selby's road was harder than most, which makes their arrival as such an accomplished and thoughtful writer all the more satisfying.""--Nate Blakeslee, author of Tulia ""Hotshot is a brave, powerful, deeply moving memoir of survival and strength. It is also a timely, urgent history of fire, climate change, and our complex, fraught relationship to land stewardship. River Selby's story is inspiring in its spiritual and emotional inventory. Selby is a wonderfully gifted writer about nature, about the complexities of trauma, and the hard-won possibilities of healing.""--Dana Spiotta, author of Wayward ""Hotshot is the story of a life forged through crucible. In this wonderous memoir Selby's life reminds us courage can be grown, the self can be found and anything can change. A writer of shining talent and tenacity.""--Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, New York Times bestselling author of Friday Black and Chain Gang All-Stars