‘Exquisite. An achingly beautiful, profound exploration of familial ties and their wreckages. Fire Exit cements the arrival of a very exciting new voice. I can't wait to see what Morgan Talty does next.’
Irenosen Okojie
‘Utterly consuming … filled with humour, and humanity’s strange wonder at its own desperation and depravity, as only Talty can do, with his subtle charm and crystalline prose, his sober reckoning with what love can and cannot do, what healing is and is not possible in our families. The novel absolutely smoulders.’
Tommy Orange
‘Fire Exit is gorgeous. A genuinely original examination of the costs we pay to tell ourselves certain stories about who we are and where we come from. Talty is a revelation on matters of the heart, particularly the tenderness and warfare of contemporary manhood. This is that rare thing: a frankly honest novel about hard things written without a trace of bitterness. I loved it.’
Brandon Taylor
‘Does not shy away from blistering questions of belonging and identity, but rather leans into them, in taut, often precise prose.’
The New York Times Book Review, A Best Book of June
‘Gripping … A thoughtful, heartfelt exploration of what it means to be part of a family and a community.’
Associated Press
‘Talty is a beautiful craftsman.’
The Washington Post
‘Pensive, probing.’
Vanity Fair
‘Heart-wrenching … a powerful, moving tale that poses the fundamental question of belonging.’
The Economist
‘Talty introduces omens of tragedy — a gun, house fires, and inherited mental illness — that re-emerge in an explosive final act. But the real drama of this movingly considered novel is inside its main character.’
The Wall Street Journal
‘Talty’s tender and heartbreaking debut novel … A wrenching story of dislocation and regret, sweetened with touches of humour, the novel raises important questions about human connection and belonging.’
Booklist, starred review
‘In this deliberately paced, moody novel, Talty, himself a citizen of the Penobscot Nation, considers questions of identity … [T]he author’s principal concern lies with how past events in his characters’ lives resonate painfully in the present … A melancholy journey through one man's damaged past.’
Kirkus Reviews
‘A recovering alcoholic considers what to do about his family’s secrets in Morgan Talty’s affecting novel … Charles’s sense of helplessness is conveyed through direct, evocative prose … In the thought-provoking novel Fire Exit, family and identity are so much more than what is in the blood or on a piece of paper.’
Foreword Reviews
‘Fire Exit is Talty’s first novel, following his 2022 short story collection, Night of the Living Rez. It is beautifully written, sometimes funny, often heartbreaking and hopeful against all odds. This reviewer couldn't help but think of the stories of Raymond Carver. Like Carver’s, Talty’s characters are working class, bedeviled by money troubles, drink, mental illness, lousy parents, estranged kids and difficult relationships … This is a moving, humane book.’
BookPage
‘Stark and tender, Fire Exit by Morgan Talty compassionately addresses tough choices in matters of family and love. In hardscrabble circumstances, surrounded by poverty, alcoholism, and family violence, one man wishes to give his daughter a meaningful gift: the truth … Fire Exit is concerned with bodies, with visceral needs not only for food and shelter but for truth. Talty’s tersely poetic, descriptive prose grounds this story in the physical. This first novel grapples with family issues and hard choices about love and responsibility; blood, culture, and belonging. It is an utterly absorbing story, always firmly rooted in the corporeal; tough, honest, but not bitter.’
Shelf Awareness
‘At its core, the novel is concerned with the ways people are haunted by pasts both lived and inherited and the endless complex negotiations between parents and children. Talty savvily conceives of his narrative in the grand midcentury tradition of depicting suburban roil, wherein placid surfaces of the domestic and quotidian build to existential crescendo, and the result does prove potent in spurts … This novel further testifies to Talty's ability as a formal craftsman.’
Library Journal
