The Burning House by Paul Lisicky

When Isidore Mirsky’s sister-in-law Joan loses her apartment, she moves in. Mirsky’s world is already in flux—his job lost, his bayside town under siege by developers—and now he must struggle with his bewildering attraction to Joan, who evokes for him all the qualities that once drew him to his wife. How can a warm, unpredictable man remain true to himself and to the woman he loves? Desire, and the renewal it brings, might just be the thing that causes damage. Outrageous, tender, and alive with the sound of Isidore’s voice, The Burning House captures a man at his most vulnerable moment, on the brink of something new.

“A vigorous, interior-driven narrative… Lisicky is a beautiful and powerful writer; his prose has a palpable energy that demands close attention….”—Publishers Weekly

“An extraordinary fiction in that it sustains a believable poetic voice throughout… Lisicky’s longer prose piece…often feels like a long, beautiful narrative poem about what it is to be flawed and human in a world that often seems, at best, indifferent.”—The Boston Globe

“Paul Lisicky’s The Burning House smolders with muscular, beautiful language, and shines with love for two sisters as each blossoms darkly into her own future. Lisicky’s odd man out finds his way deeply inside the reader’s desires and hopes. The answer to the question, ‘what do (good) men want?’ may well be answered in this elliptical, pitch-perfect gem of a novel.” — Jayne Anne Phillips