The summer that melted everything

Title:

Author:

Summary:

"Fielding Bliss has never forgotten the summer of 1984: the year a heat wave scorched Breathed, Ohio. The year he became friends with the devil. Sal seems to appear out of nowhere - a bruised and tattered thirteen-year-old boy claiming to be the devil himself answering an invitation. Fielding Bliss, the son of a local prosecutor, brings him home where he's welcomed into the Bliss family, assuming he's a runaway from a nearby farm town. When word spreads that the devil has come to Breathed, not everyone is happy to welcome this self-proclaimed fallen angel. Murmurs follow him and tensions rise, along with the temperatures as an unbearable heat wave rolls into town right along with him. As strange accidents start to occur, riled by the feverish heat, some in the town start to believe that Sal is exactly who he claims to be. While the Bliss family wrestles with their own personal demons, a fanatic drives the town to the brink of a catastrophe that will change this sleepy Ohio backwater forever."-- Provided by publisher.

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

310 pages ; 25 cm

Genre:

Thrillers (Fiction)

Subject Term:

Teenage boys -- Fiction.

Families -- Fiction.

Small cities -- Fiction.

Heat waves (Meteorology) -- Fiction.

Devil -- Fiction.

Teenagers -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Ohio -- Fiction.

Publisher:

St. Martin's Press,

Publication Date:

2016

ISBN:

9781250078063

Publication Information:

New York : St. Martin's Press, 2016.

Call Number:

MCDANIE

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003217125	Adult Fiction	MCDANIE	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

The devil comes to Ohio in Tiffany McDaniel's breathtaking and heartbreaking literary debut novel, The Summer That Melted Everything.

*Winner of The Guardian 's 2016 "Not the Booker" Prize and the Ohioana Readers' Choice Award
*Goodreads Choice Award nominee for "Best Fiction" and "Best Debut"

"A wonderfully original, profoundly unsettling, deeply moving novel that delivers both the shock of fully realized reality and the deep resonance of parable...A remarkable debut."
--Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize winning author of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain

"A haunting Appalachian Gothic novel that calls into question the nature of good and evil." --Akron Beacon Journal

Fielding Bliss has never forgotten the summer of 1984: the year a heat wave scorched Breathed, Ohio. The year he became friends with the devil.

Sal seems to appear out of nowhere - a bruised and tattered thirteen-year-old boy claiming to be the devil himself answering an invitation. Fielding Bliss, the son of a local prosecutor, brings him home where he's welcomed into the Bliss family, assuming he's a runaway from a nearby farm town.

When word spreads that the devil has come to Breathed, not everyone is happy to welcome this self-proclaimed fallen angel. Murmurs follow him and tensions rise, along with the temperature as an unbearable heat wave rolls into town right along with him. As strange accidents start to occur, riled by the feverish heat, some in the town start to believe that Sal is exactly who he claims to be. While the Bliss family wrestle with their own personal demons, a fanatic drives the town to the brink of a catastrophe that will change this sleepy Ohio backwater forever.

Author Notes

Tiffany McDaniel is a novelist, poet, and visual artist born and raised in Ohio. She is the author of The Summer That Melted Everything and the forthcoming novel Betty.

Reviews (1)

Library Journal Review

It's the summer of 1984 and a heat wave is scorching the small town of Breathed, OH. Seemingly out of nowhere, a boy named Sal appears. He's wearing overalls and asking strangers for ice cream. He also claims to be the devil. He relates anecdotes about Hell, makes nonchalant remarks to narrator Fielding Bliss about his "fall," and generally makes people wary and uncomfortable-all but the Bliss family, who think he's a runaway and immediately take him in. Knowledge of Sal's presence spreads, and temperatures and tensions rise. When accidents start to occur, predictably, the townspeople blame Sal. But life in Breathed isn't all that it seems. As families and fanatics fight their personal demons, the line between good and evil becomes increasingly murky. Despite the sometimes heavy-handed and overworked prose, at its highest points this debut novel shines with beauty and lyricism. VERDICT Give this to fans of atmospheric fiction, particularly those who enjoy the grit of Donald Ray Pollock, the foreshadowing of Shirley Jackson, and the mounting suspense of Peter Straub.-Erin -Entrada Kelly, Philadelphia © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.