Rachel Beanland, THE HOUSE IS ON FIRE

Zibby speaks to award-winning author and repeat MDHTTRB guest Rachel Beanland about The House is on Fire, a propulsive work of historical fiction about a fire that ravaged a theater mid-performance and forever entwined the lives of four very different Americans: a young stagehand, a society widow, an enslaved woman, and a blacksmith. Rachel talks about her meticulous research of the real 1811 Richmond fire and her use of fiction to fill in the gaps in the historical records and create a gripping narrative. She also talks about what it was like to write this book mid-pandemic, her ultimate goal of giving a voice to those who were rarely written about, and the books she has read recently and loved.

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