"A story of smoldering, unrequited love . . . Resonant characters, fascinating fire lore, and scenes of family life that will raise primal emotions in many readers." (The Globe and Mail, Toronto)

Hailed as "an intricate and seductive first novel" (The Globe and Mail, Toronto), Burning Ground introduces one of the more memorable heroines in recent literary fiction.

When Percy Turner begins a seventh season of summer work in a fire tower deep in the Canadian woods, she is hanging on to her emotional stability by a thread. Completely isolated from the outside world and ensconced in the cocoon of her tower, she spends her days scanning the horizon for "smokes"-ranger-speak for forest fires. But the fires smoldering within her are more difficult to spot. She's haunted by a lifelong passion for her best friend, Marlea, who has a male lover but wants Percy, too, and also by a troubled family past. When Percy discovers an underground fire, she abandons her post and sets off on a vision quest to bring herself face-to-face with fires both without and within.

Set in a harsh wilderness landscape, singed with bold eroticism and unflinching honesty, Burning Ground heralds the arrival of an original voice in contemporary fiction.