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.

Reviews

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

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

Many of the award-winning stories in this first collection feature strong, pragmatic women as protagonists, usually motivated by love in its broadest sense: A 19-year-old finds hidden strength after skydiving with an unstable boyfriend; a lonely, uprooted Asian woman makes a life in America; the cleaning woman of a famous scientist idolizes her employer despite suffering physically because of his experiments; a wife connects best with her husband during the time of their greatest challenge. Edwards utilizes her perceptual ability and keen eye for detail to delineate believable characters, many of whom are facing unique challenges. Their haunting situations are effectively complemented by unusual settings in Asia, America and Europe. Recommended for all literary collections.‘Ellen R. Cohen, Rockville, Md.