Who By Fire

[T]here are no defining moments, no cast list stuck to a family's refrigerator door with an alphabet magnet. It's every single thing that happens to a family, the combination of experiences, that determines how they treat each other - from "Who By Fire". When Bits and Ash were children, their younger sister was kidnapped, a tragedy that led to their family's unraveling. Years later, Ash, who always blamed himself for Alena's disappearance, abruptly moved to Israel to become an Orthodox Jew. By the spring of 2002, with the second Intifada at its peak, Ash's new life has consumed him; he wants nothing to do with Bits anymore, or with their mother, Ellie.Bits, a twenty-something wild child living in Boston, who parties too much, consistently destroys her personal relationships, and seeks solace in sex, is almost willing to accept Ash's disappearance, until she hears the news that changes everything: After thirteen years, Alena's remains have been recovered. Now Bits is on her way to Israel to find Ash and bring him home for Alena's funeral. She becomes obsessed with the idea of salvaging what's left of her family, but she approaches her mission with limited information: She doesn't know about the secrets her mother has been keeping, about the girl who is trying to seduce Ash away from the religious life, about the struggles that her brother is having with his faith. Told from the alternating points of view of the three family members, "Who By Fire" is a searing commentary on guilt, grief, and the inescapable bonds of family from a fresh and extremely talented new voice in American fiction.