Product Description

Young, fiery and bright, Eshlaini has her whole future ahead of her – until her father condemns her to a life of spinsterhood. Joyce has settled into Malaysian life after thirty years as an ex-pat wife – or so she thinks, until a newcomer arrives and reveals just how little of her home she knows. Jade Moon wants the best for her family – but, surrounded by Americans who reject her Korean traditions, she must first work out what ‘the best’ means. Though cultures and distances separate them, their experiences reflect our universal fears and desires. From a breathtaking island off Singapore to upstate New York and France, Kim Edwards takes in the world, compassionately and gracefully exploring the obstacles of time, place and circumstance in all of our quests for love, happiness and acceptance.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #127279 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Review
The Secrets of a Fire King gives eloquence to an astonishing range of discoveries and leaves the reader entranced (The New York Times Book Review )

Beautifully focused. Edwards' tales read like the work of a wise traveller who returns home with uncommon souvenirs from other lands. (Publishers Weekly )

Impeccable, a treasure. Edwards shows herself to be a fully realised writer. Edwards' brilliance is evident in the way she contstructs a story. (Chicago Tribune )

About the Author
Kim Edwards is the author of the multi-million-copy No.1 bestseller, The Memory Keeper's Daughter. She spent 5 years with her husband in Asia where they taught in Malaysia, Japan and Cambodia. During her time in Asia, she began to publish short fiction, and in 1990 her story Sky Juice won the Nelson Algren Award. Her stories and essays have since appeared in a wide range of periodicals, including Ploughshares, Zoetrope, Anteaus, Story, and The Paris Review. They have won many honors, including a National Magazine Award for Excellence in Fiction and a Pushcart Prize, as well as inclusion in The Best American Short Stories. Kim Edwards received a Whiting Writers’ Award in 2002 and is currently an assistant professor of English at the University of Kentucky.

Customer Reviews

Rich Cutural Flavours
Fourteen beautifully crafted short stories from the author of The Memory Keeper's Daughter. Kim Edwards taught in Asia for five years, in Malaysia, Japan, and Cambodia. Her experience in those countries richly flavours the prose, The Secrets of a Fire King, the eighth story in the book. The reader is taken on a tour of quirky human foibles, disenchantment, and entrenched cultural traditions. Edwards, makes time and place leap from the pages with her stories of Eshlaini, Jade Moon, and Joyce. For those who enjoy reading short stories, this collection is one not to pass by.

Thoroughly enjoyable.
Not a fan of short stories as I'm usually left feeling nothing for the characters but this collection is simply wonderful. Very well written and great stories for men or women. Thoroughly enjoyable.