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Briefly Noted:“Godwin,” “Fire Exit,” “Private Revolutions,” and “Thom Gunn” (The New Yorker)

This striking début novel of cultural inheritance and painful family bonds follows a man living across the river from Maine’s Penobscot reservation, where he was raised by his white mother and Native stepfather, and where he lived until he was effectively evicted by a law that tied residency to official tribal status.

Amerie’s Book Club Pick for July 2024

Are we our stories, and what happens when we begin to lose them? These are some of the questions Morgan Talty explores in Fire Exit with alternate turns of blunt force reality and soothing, poetic beauty.

Fiction: Maxim Loskutoff’s ‘Old King,’Plus Julia Phillips’s ‘Bear,’ and Morgan Talty’s ‘Fire Exit’ (Wall Street Journal)

‘Night of the Living Rez’ author Morgan Talty follows up with novel ‘Fire Exit’ (NPR’s All Things Considered)

“…[F]or Indigenous Americans, the question of lineage, of bloodline, of blood quantum is an ever-present question with its own legal ramifications. It's something explored in the acclaimed debut novel by Morgan Talty, called Fire Exit.

Announcing the Best Books of 2024 So Far, as chosen by the Amazon Editors (Amazon)

Fire Exit is a melancholy but quietly powerful story about taking care of your tribe, however you find them.

Poured Over: Morgan Talty on Fire Exit (Barnes & Noble)

Talty joined us live to talk about Native American identity and his work, the process of writing novels and short form fiction, the importance and impact of storytelling and more with Miwa Messer, host of Poured Over.

The Best New Books to Read in Summer 2024 (Elle)

Where to read it: In a forest along the East Coast—specifically Maine, if you can swing it.

Summer books 2024: It’s summertime and the reading’s easy. Or epic. Choose your own adventure. (Chicago Tribune)

Fire Exit, the lacerating debut novel by Morgan Talty, whose story set Night of the Living Rez was a 2022 critical smash, delves again into the families in a Native American community, for a tale of a man haunted by descendants present and just out of reach.

In “Fire Exit,’ a father grapples with connection and the meaning of belonging (NPR Books)

At once a touching narrative about family and a gritty story about alcoholism, dementia, and longing, Fire Exit is a novel in which past and present are constantly on the page as we follow a man's life — while it also entertains what that life could have been.

I’ll Show You My Indian If You Show Me Yours — Esquire

My son and I bleed the same color, but I’m Penobscot and he’s not. That’s because of blood quantum, a legal measure that affects our political and social rights. But there’s another way to live—and another way to understand our identity.