Touched by Fire
  • Published: 15 September 2013
  • ISBN: 9781770495241
  • Imprint: Tundra Books
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 208
  • RRP: $38.00

Touched by Fire

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As well-researched and intriguing historical fiction, Touched by Fire is expected to sell well in the school and library market and to garner award nominations.

"Let them burn. They're a lot of cattle anyway."
A factory-owner's response regarding the use of fire drills in March 1911.

     Touched by Fire, Irene N. Watt's exquisite new novel, explores one family's journey as they flee from the pogroms of Russia in 1905, where the Cossacks burn villages to the ground, to Berlin, Germany, where Jews have a hard time living and working in peace, to the streets of the Lower East Side in New York. Teenage Miriam gives a first-hand account of the excitement everyone feels about going to America, the "Golden Land," the journey in steerage, the arrival at Ellis Island, and the discrimination the immigrants feel while seeking employment. When Miriam finally lands a job at the Triangle Shirt Waist Company as a cuff setter, she believes her future in the New World is finally secure. But on March 25, 1911, the fire that starts from overflowing bins of material scraps rages into what becomes known as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, and Miriam's life is forever changed.
  • Published: 15 September 2013
  • ISBN: 9781770495241
  • Imprint: Tundra Books
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 208
  • RRP: $38.00
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About the author

Irene N. Watts

Born in Berlin, Germany, Tundra author IRENE N.WATTS is a writer and playwright who has worked throughout Canada and Europe. She is a life member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada, and her play “Lillie” based on her novel,
Flower, was awarded first prize in UNESCO’s Biennial Playwriting Award. Watts’s three award-winning novels, Good-bye Marianne, Finding Sophie, and Remember Me, have all been published in the United Kingdom and translated into Italian. Irene N. Watts lives by the ocean in Vancouver, BC. She is currently working with Kathryn E. Shoemaker on turning Remember Me — the next book documenting the events of the Kindertransporte — into graphic novel form.

Also by Irene N. Watts

Escape From Berlin
Good-bye Marianne
Remember Me
Flower
When the Bough Breaks
No Moon
See all

Praise for Touched by Fire

Praise for No Moon

"... Watts has written another great book of historical fiction. While the topic of death is very much a part of the story, she handles it in such a manger that it is not a morbid story, but one of hope and overcoming fear."
- Resource Links

"...Watts provides a fascinating account of what the great unsinkable ship was like. The catastrophe is rendered in a heartbreakingly graceful style, and Lou performs heroically in shepherding her two little girls to safety on a lifeboat in this uniquely engaging and satisfying coming-of-age historical adventure tale."
- Starred Review, Booklist