Abstract
<p><em>Four Fires is a 90,000-word novel about coming of age in a military family. The</em></p>
<p><em>story follows three generations of American veterans, capturing the nature of military</em></p>
<p><em>tradition and our obsession with war.</em></p>
<p><em>After Elijah Alcott’s father, an Army Ranger, falls from a helicopter in a fatal</em></p>
<p><em>training accident in 1993, Elijah is sent to live with his paternal grandfather, Papa, in</em></p>
<p><em>rural Washington. There he meets his cousins, Eric and John, and the girl next door,</em></p>
<p><em>Simone. Together they navigate the pitfalls of love, friendship, loss, and things left</em></p>
<p><em>unfinished, all under the specter of military heritage, of past wars, and of future wars that</em></p>
<p><em>will tear them apart.</em></p>
<p><em>Four Fires examines the full extent of war’s impact on its participants and</em></p>
<p><em>observers, both before and after battle. But it goes beyond the retelling of wartime</em></p>
<p><em>experience, seeking the root of war’s influence as its stories and myths pass from one</em></p>
<p><em>generation to the next.</em></p>
