Fire Shut Up in My Bones

A New York Times Notable Book | Lambda Literary Award Winner | Long-listed for the PEN Open Book Award

€œCharles Blow is the James Baldwin of our age.€ €" Washington Blade

€œ[An] exquisite memoir . . . Delicately wrought and arresting.€ €" New York Times

Universally praised on its publication, Fire Shut Up in My Bones is a pioneering journalist€s indelible coming-of-age tale. 

Charles M. Blow€s mother was a fiercely driven woman with five sons, brass knuckles in her glove box, and a job plucking poultry at a factory near their segregated Louisiana town, where slavery's legacy felt close. When her philandering husband finally pushed her over the edge, she fired a pistol at his fleeing back, missing every shot, thanks to €œlove that blurred her vision and bent the barrel.€ Charles was the baby of the family, fiercely attached to his €œdo-right€ mother. Until one day that divided his life into Before and After€"the day an older cousin took advantage of the young boy. The story of how Charles escaped that world to become one of America€s most innovative and respected public figures is a stirring, redemptive journey that works its way into the deepest chambers of the heart.

€œStunning . . . Blow€s words grab hold of you . . . [and] lead you to a place of healing.€ €" Essence

€œThe memoir of the year.€ €" A. V. Club