The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers: A Novel - Softcover

Mullen, Thomas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 081297929X ISBN 13: 9780812979299

Publisher: Random House Trade, 2011

Synopsis

In award-winning author Thomas Mullen's evocative and spirited novel, we follow the Depression-era adventures of Jason and Whit Fireson--bank robbers known as the Firefly Brothers by an adoring public that worships their acts as heroic counterpunches thrown at a broken system. Late one night in August 1934, following a yearlong crime spree across the Midwest, the Firefly Brothers are forced into a police shootout and die in a hail of bullets. Or do they? Jason and Whit's girlfriends--Darcy, a wealthy socialite, and Veronica, a hardened survivor--struggle between grief and an unyielding belief that the Firesons are alive. Wild rumors spread that the bandits are still at large. Through it all, the Firefly Brothers remain as charismatic, unflappable, and as mythical as the American dream itself, racing to find the women they love and to make sense of a world in which all has come unmoored.

About this title

Review:

"A stunning work of fiction that is intense, deeply satisfying and always uniquely American . . . reminiscent of Michael Chabon's best."--Los Angeles Times

"A complex brain-teaser . . . riveting . . . Mullen's absorbing tale of larger-than-life criminals, car chases, and shootouts is not to be missed."--The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"Magic noirism . . . wonderfully illuminates why 1930s America spawned so many dark heroes, and how similar that depression was at times to the recession we're experiencing now."--The New York Times Book Review

"Stylish storytelling [that] brings to life an earlier era to speak to our own . . . Mullen is a spirited writer, delivering consistently smart dialogue. . . . The women of the novel . . . form its emotional core."--The Boston Globe

"A full-throttle page-turner [with] a palpable sense of time and place . . . a high-wire balance of historical fiction and pulp fantasy"--Toronto Star

From the Back Cover:

Jason and Whit Fireson, the notorious, bank-robbing duo known as the Firefly Brothers, wake to find themselves lying on cooling boards in a police morgue. Riddled with bullet wounds, the reality is inescapable: they've been killed. But they're alive.It is August of 1934, in the midst of the Great Depression but in the waning months of the great Crime Wave, during which the newly-created FBI killed such famous outlaws as John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, and Pretty Boy Floyd. Across the nation, men are out of work and families are starving, and Americans are stunned and frightened by the collapse of their country's foundations.The Firesons' lovers Darcy and Veronica struggle between grief and an unyielding belief that Jason and Whit have survived, while their stunned mother and straight-arrow third brother desperately try to support their family and evade police spies. And through it all the Firefly Brothers themselves race to find the women they love, and make sense of a world that has come unmoored.Complete with kidnappings and gangsters, heiresses and speakeasies, The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers combines the stark realism of a troubled time with all the myth-making magic of the American Dream itself. It is an imaginative and breathless story about being hopelessly outgunned - and tells a tale of danger, redemption, and love that transcends death.

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House Trade
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 081297929X
• ISBN 13: 9780812979299
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 432