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    The Secrets of a Fire King: Stories
    Unavailable
    The Secrets of a Fire King: Stories
    Unavailable
    The Secrets of a Fire King: Stories
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Secrets of a Fire King: Stories

    Written by Kim Edwards

    Narrated by Bernadette Dunne

    3/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    The first story collection from the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Memory Keeper's Daughter

    With The Memory Keeper's Daughter, Kim Edwards touched hearts across the nation. In this, her first collection of stories-now with three new stories added-she explores the lives of those who exist on the fringes of society: a fire-eater, an American and his Korean war bride, Madame Curie's maid, and others. Though their tales vary dramatically, each comes up against the barriers of place and circumstance in the most universal of experiences: the quest to discover and understand the elusive mysteries of love. Transporting readers to exotic locations, this beautiful collection reinforces Edwards's presence as an extraordinarily gifted writer.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateMay 31, 2007
    ISBN9781429586849
    Unavailable
    The Secrets of a Fire King: Stories

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    Reviews for The Secrets of a Fire King

    3/5

    6 ratings6 reviews

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    • 1/5
      Before The Memory Keepers Daughter skyrocketed up the best-seller list, author Kim Edwards wrote another book, a collection of short stories.

      We all know how much I love a good short story collection, and since I adored The Memory Keepers Daughter, I was interested in reading this one. I was even more interested when I spotted the audio at the library.

      Before I start with the commentary, I gotta say something about that cover.

      It kind of creeps me out, if I do say so myself. It's too ... embryotic. Too freaky. Anyway, I just had to mention that.

      Maybe I keep conjuring up embryos in connection with this petri dish of stories because, with a few exceptions, they all kind of struck me as not quite ... fully formed. The adjective that I keep coming back to for these stories is "nondescript." I've been listening to this audio all week and while they're nice enough stories, most of them fall somewhat flat, forgotten as soon as I eject the CD.

      For example, there is a betrayal aspect to the story "Spring, Mountain, Sea" that could almost be viewed as a prelude to the central plot of The Memory Keepers Daughter; in fact, the two incidents are similar enough that I was curious to know if it had inspired or influenced the novel. However, unlike the novel, the betrayal in this short story is mentioned and then all but dismissed, only to be referenced once more. It seems integral enough to the short story that it does the tale a disservice.

      Perhaps it's just that the novel format is a stronger one for Ms. Edwards, and that's OK. I think as writers we're allowed - encouraged, even - to experiment. We need to, otherwise how will we ever know what works?
    • 2/5
      I was unable to finish this book. It consists of numerous short stories. I couple of them I really enjoyed, but for the most part I was not impressed with them.
    • 4/5
      I didn't know what to expect when I picked up Kim Edwards collection of short stories. What I discovered is that Edwards has a broad scope of story telling that I wouldn't have expected. The 14 stores contained in this collection have a common element of writing style to them - rich, descriptive prose with sentences that flow smoothly into one another, with no ragged edges or jarring dialogue. As for the story topics, they range from modern day family squabbles that impact on social and economic issues, eco-travel future age science, historical fiction, mythical tales and circus life (to name but a few) set in locales around the globe from North America to Europe and Southeast Asia.I didn't enjoy all of the stories with the same gusto but that is to be expected when such a diverse offering is presented. The anchor stories, "The Great Chain of Being" and "The Story of My Life" are two stories that continue to resonate with me along with "A Gleaming in the Darkness", a story about Madame Curie and her discovery of radium told from the point of view of a cleaning woman of the labs.In all, I was quite impressed with this book and can happily recommend this book to others.
    • 4/5
      I wasn't a huge fan of The Memory Keepers Daughter, so it was with hesitation that I picked up The Secrets of a Fire King. I was pleasantly surprised. These short stories are engaging and varied. They are set in lots of different places and about very different people. This is important in a book of short stories, in my opinion, especially a slim one such as this. Even though the stories and the book itself is short, I finished it feeling that it was a book of well-rounded and very interesting writing.
    • 3/5
      This book of short stories was a little different than what I expected. I enjoyed the stories as a whole and some of them were very touching, but at times I was bored and it was a little hard to get through a story. Over all it was nice.
    • 5/5
      A fantastic collection of short stories set in the recent past. The heroes of the stories are people on the fringes of society who try to life their life to the fullest but come upon everyday obstacles. Edwards masterfully manages to tell a life story within a couple of sentences and right from the start I was fully immersed in the setting. A must-have collection of modern fiction.