Internationally acclaimed as one of the most exciting debuts of the year, this stunning memoir has put Andrea Ashworth on the literary map as one of the brightest stars of her generation. Once in a House on Fire is the vivid and unforgettable portrait of a family terrorized by the explosive rage of one stepfather and then another. Yet Andrea never gives in to despair and finds a haven in the work of great writers-Joyce, Eliot, D. H. Lawrence, and others-who allow her to see a world beyond her own and set her on her path toward intellectual and artistic awakening.