This emotional novel explores the legacy of family secrets and trauma. The writing is beautiful and riveting. Shapiro is generous and compassionate towards her troubled characters. Waldo was my favorite—he really brought a sense of poetry and wonder to the story. This is a quiet picture of people struggling with grief and searching for self-acceptance and I was hooked from page one. Shapiro again proves her agility in writing about the inner workings of the heart. (Sensitive readers, be aware that the story does begin with a fatal car accident.)

Signal Fires is an exquisitely crafted gem of a novel about individuals and families seeing constancy and understanding and healing, one day at a time. At the heart of the book, there's a magical, insightful boy obsessed with understanding the vastness of space and time. Across the street lives a family that shares a painful, unspoken secret. And there's a 500-year-old tree that has stood watch over it all, absorbing the pain and love and glory and hopes of the residents of suburban Division Street. Overhead, the cosmos lights the way forward, perhaps.

The way Dani Shapiro unfolds this story is intriguing and masterful. She unwraps layers of imprinted hurt and memory in a truly beautiful way that kept me reading and inspired me to highlight many lovely passages. Often, the profundity of her writing stopped me in my tracks.

It's not a long book (240 pages), and I'm so glad that I went into it totally blind. I just trusted Shapiro's writing implicitly after loving her memoir Inheritance. There's certainly a lot of pain and darkness in this story, but ultimately it expands to include the possibility of redemption and hope.

Highly recommend this book! Thank you to NetGalley, Knopf, and the author for the opportunity to read an eARC of this novel before publication, in exchange for my honest feedback.

I really enjoyed this book! It was just beautifully written and the characters stay with you. I will be recommending this book to everyone.

“Signal Fires” is a lovely nuanced and subtle novel. It starts with a car accident where a teen is killed. The car is driven by a drunk underage Theo, and his sister Sarah takes the blame. The tentacles of guilt and shame twist through the Wilf family for decades to come. A new family, the Shenkmans, move across the street, and their brilliant, lonely son befriends Dr. Wilf. You ache for all these characters, you love them. This is such a delicate yet deep and compelling story that it is not be be missed. You’ll be thinking about the Wilfs and the Shenkmans long after you close the book.

Signal Fires is a moving tale of how one event can have profound effects on so many individuals. The book opens in the mid-1980's where three teenagers are involved in a tragic accident. A young doctor, Ben Wilf arrives at the scene and is deeply affected when he makes a split second decision. The Wilf family spends the years ahead not discussing what happened. Moving years ahead in time on the same road, Waldo, a young boy is enamored by the wonder of the sky. He is a quiet boy who struggles to make connections with others, but is befriended by the now older Dr. Wilf.

I do not want to give away how many of the characters are connected because I loved how Shapiro slowly rolled it out. Each character is well-developed and I was deeply moved by their stories and how trauma informs future actions (or inactions). This is a moving, complex web of relationships that I would highly recommend others read. For fans of books about family dynamics, coping with trauma, chronic physical and/or mental illness, and intertwined narratives, I think you will enjoy. I had only read nonfiction work from Shapiro before, and will now go back and read her previous fiction.

Thank you to Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group via Netgalley for the advance reader copy in exchange for honest review.

Our expectations, acknowledged or not, send rivets of signals to others. Actions and deeds follow. And the aftermath can be a cruel river to cross.

I've not had the pleasure of reading Dani Shapiro before. I've heard that it's been a while since her last book. Believe me, this one has been so worth the wait. A treasure of a read.

Shapiro takes us back in time to the Summer of 1985 in Avalon, New York. A quiet neighborhood on Division Street with well-established homes and well-behaved children. But that's not always the case. And that late Summer evening brought tragedy to the Wilf residence that night leaving a young teenage girl dead at their doorstep.

Time moves on to the cold month of December in 2010. Doctor Ben Wilf is now 74 years old and so much has changed. He's packing up his household after 40 years on Division Street. His wife, Mimi, suffers from Alzheimer's and is in a care facility. Their daughter, Sarah, is now living in California as a successful film producer. Their son, Theo, has opened two restaurants in Brooklyn. All those little ducks in a row will take flight after an unforeseen incident that will take place on that very night. And lives will never be the same.

Ben will have had an encounter with Waldo Shenkman, an 11 year old boy from across the street who darts out into the night unknown to his parents to observe the constellations. Ben stands under an old oak tree and they engage in conversation. Waldo has an amazing grasp of scientific identification of the stars and he can name them at will. Ben realizes that Waldo is starved for attention which he is not receiving from his quick-tempered father and an exhausted mother. Keep your eye on Waldo. He will steal your heart around every corner.

Sometimes those aforementioned stars will align and bring about a series of events long buried but hardly forgotten. When you willfully walk past those still burning embers, they tend to catch, once again, and the flame is lit when least expected. Shapiro engages us in the webbing of our past actions that somehow connect us to one another in the scheme of things. And the choices made by ourselves or others can disrupt simply like the shift in a butterfly's wing. It brings to mind the Gyneth Paltrow movie, Sliding Doors, where aware or unaware choices have a profound effect in our lives. Payback can be more difficult.

Whether you are a practical person by nature or easily charged by emotion, Signal Fires will surely get your attention. Beautifully written with highly charged passages, you won't forget these characters. There will be the simple raising of a hand towards the end that will make all the difference in the world. Watch for it.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Alfred A. Knopf Books and to the talented Dani Shapiro for the opportunity.

Wow, this is certainly a wonderful story about two families, neighbors in fact and mistakes that are made. It tells the story of growing up and how all children and all adults who process and live through those mistakes different and how it changes the very essence for each family. I loved this book, and every character. There are tears and smiles, a beautiful book. Thank you #KnophPublishingGroup#NetGalley#SignalFires

The Wilf and Shenkman families are neighbors on Division Street, but not friends. Dr. Wilf and his teenage children have an old trauma that they are running from and the Shenkmans later move in and meet Dr. Wilf unexpectedly. The two families will be intertwined forever.

This book is being highly anticipated for fall. I had previously read and loved a memoir by Dani Shapiro called Inheritance. However, this fiction novel of hers just didn't do it for me. I liked the character development, but they felt very bland, and it was definitely literary fiction- not the thriller that it's being marketed as. It was very slow and although I'm sure many will love the beautiful writing; it just did not connect with me. It jumped around in time, which I suspect was added in editing to build up some of the major events, but to me it made it feel less coherent. So, I hope that the many people who are anticipating this book love it, but I will look forward to reading more memoirs or nonfiction from Shapiro instead.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advance copy for review.

I have known Dani Shapiro as a prolific memoir writer, of which I have read Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love and Hourglass: Time, Memory, Marriage, as well as a talented podcast host. I did NOT know she could write fiction like this.

The Wilf family changes forever after a harrowing car accident in their front yard leads to the death of a teenager. We jump to different times in the future, where the family is still dealing with the aftermath of this fateful night, as well as their own interpersonal challenges. We also get to know the Shenkman family across the street, who become connected to the Wilf family in numerous ways.

The characters are vivid and distinct, the story is heartfelt, and the writing is damn near perfect. I will be thinking about these characters and these families for a long time. This book deserves 5 stars and so many more.

Loved Shapiro’s memoir so I was excited to give her fiction a try! The one choice Thad can change a lifetime is something that goes across my mind often, and I really enjoyed the depth of the characters. Felt so real. Really loved.

Waldo Shenkman and Ben Wilf. Two unlikely neighbor friends. Waldo and Ben meet under the tree in Ben's yard one evening to look at the stars for a moment, Ben is able to forget the tragic accident that occurred at this same spot years ago. The unlikely ties between Waldo, a preteen boy, and Ben, a retired doctor, bind them far into the future.

I really enjoyed this story but I did feel there were some parts that were left out. It was insinuated that Ben suffered professionally after the accident, but it was never elaborated. The relationships in the Wilf family were so well done, their love but their distance was clear.

I'm a huge fan of Dani Shapiro's book Inheritance and her podcast Family Secrets and this book definitely shared that same voice. This was easy to read and kept me engaged throughout.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for providing me with an advance digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

Available October 18, 2022.

A beautifully written blend of litfic and crime, this will find fans in many readers. A recommended first purchase.

Although Dani Shapiro has been putting out a steady stream of well-received nonfiction in recent years, this is her first novel in a decade and a half, and I was eager to get my hands on it. Signal Fires is a complicated family story (a favorite subgenre of mine) that manages to straddle the line between devastating and hopeful. It begins in 1985 when three teenagers who’ve been drinking crash their car just blocks from home. The driver’s father–a doctor–rushes onto the scene to help, and the decisions made that night transform the trajectory of many lives. Shapiro weaves this tale through a non-chronological timeline, giving us snapshots of these characters at pivotal points in their lives, coming back to the time shortly after the crash, and stretching far enough into the characters’ futures to bring us into the 2020 pandemic. My favorite element of this book is the wonderful character Waldo, an odd and gentle boy whose obsession with astronomy (particularly an iPad app called StarWalk) infuriates his blustering father, but also serves as the thematic center for the novel. Because, while this is very much a story about a family, with characters who feel real and lives that feel relatable, it is ultimately a book about fate and possibility. Shapiro explores the mystical and mundane ways that we are all interconnected, suggesting that the way our lives are shaped by the personalities and choices of others is simultaneously beautiful and terrifying.

Fall reading mood: you want a page turner with top-notch writing and thought-provoking theme

Read this if you like: Commonwealth by Ann Patchett, Shampiro’s nonfiction, realistic novels with a tinge of the metaphysical, books grounded in our present moment, lyrical yet readable writing, books that feel like book club books

A character-driven story that unfortunately just didn't land for me. I understand what Shapiro was trying to do, and I was really hoping that I would feel a connection to this story... but I just didn't. The nonlinear timeline and long chapters were tricky to navigate at times.

This novel is incredibly good. It is a beautiful exploration of human connectedness and its power. The story begins with a sister and brother who crash a car killing a friend that was with them. They survived, there were no charges, and it was never spoken of. The plot follows them in snippets throughout their lives, but also follows their kind and loving parents, starting many years later when then father is moving from their family home into a nursing home to be with their mother who suffers from Alzheimer's. It explores a relationship between the father and the son of the across the street neighbors who have their own struggles. And it is told in an easy to follow back and forth of moments that connect the story lines. This is the first book that I have read by Dani Shapiro, but the author has shown up in my recommendations for years. I have explored several of her novels but have not actually picked one up. I actually think I have one of her novels on my "to be read shelf" that has lingered there for a while. I'm so glad I did not let that happen with this one. Now I get to go back and read the earlier one's because this author demonstrates amazingly strong writing and storytelling that should not be missed. I can't wait to get started. Thank you NetGalley and publishers for providing a digital ARC for review.

I was very excited to read Signal Fires, as I’ve read and loved three of Shapiro’s memoirs. The novel follows two neighboring families over many years/decades. While the story is framed around major plot twists, it is more character driven. I found the novel to be a little confusing in its focus. It opens on a horrific accident scene that ends up effecting one of the families for many decades, but the impact of that scene sort of fizzles out. This may be due to the major jump in timelines, but I felt disconnected from any emotional resolution surrounding the event while reading.

This story has many things I like: beautiful prose, a character focused narrative, and themes like the impact of actions generationally on a family, strangers, neighborhoods, etc. It was hard to put down at first, and then it became a little repetitive, had too many narrators/points of view, and too many shocking plot points. I’m glad I read the book (it reminded me a little of one of my favorites: Everything I Never Told You) but I think the “message” or themes lost their impact for me among the plot twists.

Bouncing back and forth through time, between several members of two families who lived on the same street, we learn about life, love, and tragedy in the pages of Signal Fires. Every character is beautifully drawn to make them feel like real people who are messy, complicated, but searching for connection, always. Our family isn’t always just the one we are born into. I will be thinking about these characters for a long time. I loved this book.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Signal Fires is a story about a family who 20 years later are still working to overcome a tragic accident that they walked away from seemingly unscathed, but not either. The story is told from 5 different perspectives - the family patriarch, his daughter, his son, the father across the street and his son Waldo. It crosses back and forth from the past to the present to the future and back again, but is never confusing. This is the first fiction book I have read by Dani Shaperio and fell in love with it just as easily as I have with all of her nonfiction. She works magic with her words. They lull you into a place that you don't even realize you are going to until you have to come back out. There is a beauty to her writing that is simple, yet powerful. As with everything she touches this story is well done and should be on everyone's reading list.

Thanks so much to the publisher and to NetGalley for giving me access to this book. Great book! Shapiro is an amazing writer. Well written, great premise and interesting characters. I will be recommending this book. Thanks again for letting have a chance to read it.

An interesting book in which - using the stars and the lives of two families - shows how everything In life is connected with no beginning and no end. The circle of life goes on.