I had a hard time initially getting into this book I think because there are so many characters and time switches. It just didn’t give me anything to hook onto. But there were some parts that were so gripping and heartbreaking I ended up being turned around. I do think there’s a bit of melancholy and because there is so much back and forth we don’t really get a deep sense of any of the families but it’s enough. I would say it’s a much shorter and less deep version of count the ways plus a little hope. I think those that like stories that twist together and family dramas will enjoy this one/

"Signal Fires" is a very safe and melodramatic novel. It felt like a Lifetime movie. I needed more depth and substance considering the subject matter. This novel deals with severe trauma, but the way it was written, makes it seem like fluff. I didn't care for the characters. I also didn't like the overall tone. Very patronizing.

I loved this literary fiction novel about 3 teenagers who, in 1985, are in a car crash that changes lives forever. Not only their lives but those of their families. We come to know the Wilf family in various past and present timeframes and this way of telling the story was brilliant. We also meet the Shankland family, neighbors who move in across the street from the Wilf's and their son Waldo becomes a very interesting main character. Combining perfect pace, memorable insights into life, living, death, family, marriage, and more I thought this was a riveting story and I will definitely be buying a print copy for my home bookshelf. Loved it!

I don't think this was the right book for me to pickup for my mood, but I think its goin to circulate very well in my midsized system

"Life is just a series of accidents, one piled on top of the next like one of those huge highway crashes you sometimes read about...." Signal Fires is about these accidents - literal and metaphorical - and it is about relationships, characters' relationships with one another, humans' relationships to the universe, and so much more. Dani Shapiro's beautiful prose takes what could have been a mundane story and transformed it into a masterpiece. I loved Signal Fires, its images, its characters, ins insights. I loved it so much that I started to reread it after I had finished reading it. This is a book to savor, to think about deeply. Signal Fires deserves a place on the shelf that holds your most favorite books.

I enjoyed this book while I was reading it. It's a slow but solid family drama. There were a few details that grated on me -- the way Shapiro writes about Waldo's iPad made it seem like she'd never experienced technology before -- but I wanted to know how the characters were going to connect.

There's a lot left unsaid, a lot the reader is left to imagine or infer here. Maybe that's restraint, but it feels a little unfinished. Either way, the result, for me, is a book that is forgettable, that was slipping from my mind almost before I finished.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy.

This book is due to be released in October of 2022. Put it on your TBR list now. Its a deep story of family, love and secrets. It starts off with three teenagers in 1985, with one of them behind the wheel and a crash. But then the secrets begin of who was really driving. And so we find ourselves 25 years later, when thinking all was hidden to realize that no secret is kept a secret forever.

The Wilf family is functioning, then a new family moves in next door and Dr. Wilf finds himself delivering their baby. With his wife declining we find the secret he has kept all these years are finding its way to being exposed. I love how Dani Shapiro connects these two families and her in depth development of a long ago lie. Page turner for sure. #fivestars #netgalley

I just couldn't get into this one. I really enjoyed Dani Shapiro's recent memoir, but I guess her fiction is not my cup of tea.

This kept me reading constantly. I finished this in two days.
You know how some authors can describe characters so will you have a very vivid mental image of what they look like? Well not only does the author describe them so you can picture them, she builds the flesh and emotion around them. You can visualize the mannerisms, witness their anxiety and know when they were uncomfortable or when they’re getting ready to explode and anger. She brings them to life.

There is a young boy who is a genius level with an interest in the the stars. He can't seem to connect with his classmates or his father. He will become an astrophysicist but he experiences loneliness growing up. The connections of all the characters -signal fires -link the young boy, the doctor and his family who live across the street, a car accident which takes a life, everything is connected. As I said, couldn't put this down and would recommend to a fan of Dani Shapiro.

An affecting enough novel - and sentimental in a refreshingly unashamed manner - but it creates the intense feeling of being not much new, which I figure is primarily because of how insufficiently the characters are sketched. The logline emphasizes the tragic event that sets off the emotional undercurrents of the novel, yet I feel like there isn't quite enough of those affected by that event. Sarah is basically a non-character, and Theo is not much more. Much of what we get from these characters in particular is told in summary. There's some amount of focus on Waldo, but for the most part it feels like the characters are too cramped to be effective, and even Waldo doesn't seem to get much. And I don't know that the scattered intertwined timelines had the intended effect, either. I'm all for unconventional narrative form, but I just don't think it helped here. Being an ensemble type of novel, it has the expected messaging about connections between people and whatnot (I just also read A Quiet Life by Ethan Joella, also an upcoming novel, which was of similar form and theme. I wasn't super impressed by that one either, but I promise I do like this kind of format when it's done well), and doesn't go terribly beyond that, as I feel like any thematic significance of the initial tragedy and the various other moments of grief was lost due to there just not being enough development of characters' emotions and everything being so hopelessly tangled. The prose is uniformly beautiful (although there is at times some awkwardness in wording that comes from the third person limited point of view that the author is essentially using as first person) and this skillfulness certainly allows for the novel to often have impact in the moment, crucially including at the end, but in terms of the broader effect and impact, there isn't as much there as I would have hoped.

This is a magnificent book about family, grief, guilt, and the ways in which people are connected to each other. I felt a deep love and caring for each one of these imperfect characters. I really loved this book, and was sad when it came to the end. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Ben and Mimi move to the suburbs to begin a charmed life with their children. Life happens. Not all of it is charming.

The characters are real and the situations are relatable.

I could not - could not - COULD NOT - LOVE THIS BOOK MORE!!!
I was a crying mess towards the end —
End? I didn’t want it end!

No Question about it…..it’s ABSOLUTELY one of my favorite books of the year — ( selfishly—personally so!!!)

There is not one person I wouldn’t recommend this book to.
Other readers might not be feeling as sensitive- about life - as I am at the moment — and perhaps not everyone will feel soooo gratefully moved and blessed for having read it (of course not - I’m not that naïve)— but it is A BEAUTIFUL BOOK!! >> and I believe there are other readers that will read this book - want to live inside it as I did - never stop reading it (other than to stop and pause to contemplate moving sentences, scenes, or themes that Dani wrote)

Every inch of “Signal Fires” was moving — I experienced with all my senses!!!!
The writing is invites deep reflection…. illuminated by the warmth and delicacy of her prose.

There was an ‘out-of-the-ordinary’ scene where Ben, Dr. Wilf, got angry at both of his adult kids: Sarah and Theo. I set the book down and simply looked into the darkness of my room- from my bed at 4am. …. (to think about the following excerpt from many points of view)
“This is what happens with grown children and their parents. He’s seen it in his practice. They begin to take over. They think they know best. Meanwhile, where the hell has either of them been—for years now?”

A few more non-traditional tidbits to share - rather than a formal proper review:
….Several characters had a hard time sharing their feelings…..but had plenty of feelings. For me — this running theme throughout is in itself is worthy of discussion.

…..Waldo Shenkman wasn’t like most - (almost eleven) - other boys ….. Besides being kind, sweet, and sensitive,
He was interested in the universe ….
…..Andromeda, Antlia, Apus, Aquarius, Aquila, Ara,
Aries. . . etc.“
Waldo had a brilliant mind. The journey we take with him, his parents, Dr. Ben Wilk— (his own coming-of-age tale) —will touch the most common elements of the heart.

Every character is deeply felt …..
A tragedy is deeply felt ….
Family is deeply felt ….
The cost of silence and loneliness is deeply felt …
Dani has written ‘Signal Fires’ with humanity that transcends time and the experience of living.
Her characters are compelling and true.
And, as the reader, I wanted to heal them all.

A few little excerpts that spoke to me:

“Silence didn’t make it go away but instead drove the events of that night or deeply into each of them”.

“The 20th century is coming to an end. Mimi feels it as a pang of loss. Years she had her babies, years in which she was a young mother, nursing, singing lullabies, walking them up and down the uneven sidewalks, holding hands, lifting them high on their shoulders. The years of preschool, grade school, middle school, high school. Also long gone now, and soon to be relegated to another century entirely“.
“What is left to her? She rarely lets herself think this way, but something about this day is making her melancholy. That young family across the street with their new baby is at the beginning of a life that they think will last forever”.

“The stars are watching over us, Lady. They know where we are. They’ll find us”.

Dani Shapiro write like an angel!!!!

Thank you Netgalley, Knopf Doubleday Publishing
….and a huge ‘hug-of-love’ thanks to Dani Shapiro for writing this book. It was a pure and personal gift to my soul.

Note: This novel will be published Oct. 18th.

A gripping, intricate story about the power of guilt.

The story moves swiftly between timelines to paint fragmented portraits of characters whose stories all come heartbreakingly together in the end.

𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒂 𝒇𝒆𝒘 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒄𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒂 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆, 𝒂 𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒇𝒖𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒏𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒔𝒌𝒚. 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒔. 𝑨 𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒔𝒆𝒕𝒔 𝒐𝒇𝒇 𝒂𝒏 𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒉𝒒𝒖𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆. 𝑨 𝒇𝒂𝒖𝒍𝒕 𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒆𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒔. 𝑨 𝒘𝒊𝒓𝒆 𝒈𝒆𝒕𝒔 𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒅.

The writing is gorgeous, the pain is instinctive throughout the novel but there is beauty too. I read through much of this story with a lump in my throat, because what happens to the characters are fears, things you pray or hope never happens to you. Of course, something else will, you can’t live life pain free and every person alive will feel be affected by the tremors of others choices, not just their own. It begins in 1985 with siblings Sarah and Theo, and Sarah’s friend Misty driving in a car. An accident happens, a choice is made that seems innocent enough, but it cannot be erased, not even with Sarah’s best intentions for her little brother at heart. Under the beauty of the moon and stars, on their quiet street where the ‘good people’ of Avalon are sleeping, screams will reverberate. Dr. Benjamin Wilf will rush out into the night to a scene of horror involving his children. Another mistake will be made, adding further trauma to a secret already born between the siblings. Secrets become destruction.

2010, the same street, Waldo is an intelligent, ten-year-old boy who loves searching the night sky and studying the constellations. He befriends Dr. Wilf, just as lonely as the child, and like the stars, connections fire off. Though the young family aren’t new, they’ve never become friends, efforts weren’t made on either side. Ben’s family has drifted ever since the night of the accident years ago, and now his beloved wife, Mimi, is slowly losing time, her memory. I love the writing from her perspective, because every moment she has lived is happening in the now, because of her declining mind, she has a sort of freedom that is like time travel, I guess that’s a good description for it. It can hurt and it can soothe. Waldo is a welcome break from Ben’s pain, a delightful child, though it doesn’t say a lot about his parents that the boy is outside at night, no one watching out for him. It makes him feel protective of the kid and Waldo soaks up the attention Dr. Wilf provides as the two look at the little contraption he uses to track the stars. Long ago, when their children were first born, there was so much happiness, promise before the tragedy. Where are they now? Sarah was the golden child, Theo the fragile, sweet tender one and it seems as though the family collapsed in on itself. Sarah and Theo do not speak about what they did, and it becomes a cancer in their future, but Mimi and Ben never wanted to face it either, the shame was a wave that took them under. It’s an unspoken tragedy, the thing that flipped their happy lives upside down. Today, Sarah is impulsive, and Theo absent. The family is fractured, if only they could go back or start fresh. Waldo’s parents are a mess too, his father Shenkman can’t stomach his son, thinking he is obsessive, fearful of what will become of the boy. He can’t seem to connect with him, most fathers bond with their son through sports, but Waldo is hopeless, strange. Alice is gentle with their child, too passive of his oddball ways, Shenkman believes, and this causes serious problems in their marriage. Alice feels he punishes Waldo needlessly, cruelly. It’s a house of fear and disconnection, but more than anything, powerlessness. Something bigger than Ben and Waldo’s friendship will connect the two families. Mimi might be the one who brings her adult children home, close again. Is it possible to forgive yourself, or must you remain trapped in the sins of the past?

This is a hard review for me because I don’t want to give away the actions and the emotional state each character is in. Time is indifferent to suffering, it moves forward but pain is tenacious, it makes us push our loved ones away but it also keeps us from allowing ourselves happiness. We don’t need strangers to shame us, we do a good job of it on our own. Some people lash out in fear, others hurt themselves, and sometimes we just sabotage our relationships. As the point of view changes, the reader gains insight into each character’s mindset. Wouldn’t life be a lot easier if we could know what is going through the mind of our loved one in the moments of their actions? Instead, we’re left to assume and that leads to disaster. We also fail to understand that whether we chose to be absent or present, we affect what is happening. Waldo needs help, but he hates it, it makes him feel foolish. Those of us with aging parents can understand angry displays and those of us in Waldo’s place can relate to the feeling of emasculation, that time seems to be going in reverse. Shenkman is easy to dislike, there is a lot to unload, but what parent doesn’t fear their child won’t fit in, will be ostracized, not grow out of their weirdness? Yes, it can be celebrated, it is what makes an individual, but this is not something Shenkman is open to. On that same token, there are also families that want their child to be freer, and push for that. Why does it seem fate plays cat and mouse with our lives, sometimes putting wildly different personalities in one family? Maybe to teach us something about ourselves? The story is about how we get tangled up and how we sometimes make a bigger mess in trying to save each other. It is about acceptance, change, the secrets we keep, the lies we tell ourselves and try to force on others and how easily it all slips out of our control. Love is at the core, there is hope, disappearing can be a strange cure.

An ache that lingers.

Publication Date: October 18, 2022

Knopf

Doubleday Publishing

Everything is connected. Just one action can have a ripple effect that reverberates through time. The story begins with a car accident that involves 3 teenagers, two of them (Sarah and Theo) are brother and sister. The third person, their friend Misty, dies instantly. Seems like a story that has been told many times. The people in the story are not special. They are ordinary people with ordinary lives but Dani Shapiro breathes a life into these characters that make you care about them immediately. The ordinary becomes extraordinary. The Wilf family survives the accident and go about their lives but the effects of what happened never really leave them and color their life choices. Long after Sara and Theo have grown up and moved on with their own lives a new family moves in across the street. This family keeps to themselves but their young son, Waldo will impact the Wilfs in an unexpected way.

My goodness. Although readable, this is astonishingly slight and soapy. Two-dimensional characters are connected by implausible events and psychologies. Fates are secured by simple events. Cosmic twaddle is supposed to connect it all when really the book doesn’t know when to stop. And then there’s the sentimentality, especially about children, such an American trope, but suffocating here. Knopf? Really?

Fantastic family drama. Beautifully written. How one tragic event can shape the future of a family for years to come.

I give this book 3 stars which means I liked the book but it is likely I wouldn't recommend to someone looking for their next read. I kept hoping that there would be some happiness somewhere in the book but it just seemed no one was happy, wanting to be happy or resolve anything in their lives. It became just a sad book and I couldn't wait to just be done with it.

When you read Signal Fires, you will be immersed in a world of interconnectedness. There won't necessarily be a new character or new idea posited, but the interwovenness of life, of neighbors, community and people will be clear.

In 1985, there is a terrible car accident. This accident colors lives far into the future as Dani Shapiro includes stories from 1970's, Y2k, and the most recent time, "lockdown.' In each chapter, Shapiro builds on the
stories of the families described. She presents characters that you will continue to think of far after you have finished this book. If you like a complicated family story, engaging and realistic prose or just want a new look at contemporary life, Signal Fires is for you!
#Knopf #Doubleday #NetGalley #DaniShapiro #SignalFires