“Fire Exit, Morgan Talty’s debut novel, is utterly consuming. With this book, Talty more than fulfills the promise of his glorious short story collection, Night of the Living Rez. The storytelling is both spellbinding and quietly devastating. The novel is ultimately about family and belonging, about the stories we need to know even when they threaten to burn our lives down. A father desperately wants to let his daughter know about her body’s secret history, even while his mother forgets her son altogether. This book is filled with humor, 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 smolders.”
— Tommy Orange, author of There There

“Remarkable. . . . An outstanding new voice with a lot to say.”
— NPR

“Spellbinding. . . . a compassionate portrait of a man who is desperate to understand who he is and where he came from.”
— TIME, A Best Book of Summer

“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

“Powerfully crafted.”
— ELLE, A Best Books of Summer

“Lacerating.”
— Chicago Tribune, A Best Book of Summer

”Masterful.”
— Chicago Review of Books, A Best Book of June

“In this deliberately paced, moody novel, Talty, himself a citizen of the Penobscot Nation, considers questions of identity.”
— Kirkus Reviews

Tender and heartbreaking. . . . sweetened with touches of humor, the novel raises important questions about human connection and belonging.
— Booklist, Starred Review

“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

“Talty’s writings feels to me like a gift of many lifetimes. Forgiveness, Morgan shows us, is also the work of a lifetime. The people to whom we feel closest can somehow be right beside us in the kitchen and simultaneously on some unreachably distant planet. People rotate away from each other for days or seasons at a time, and it’s miraculous when they return to find each other again, turning towards each other instead of away. It’s a treacherous thing, to love another person in this world that mixes so much beauty with so much sorrow. Thank you for reminding us, Morgan, that it is the necessary thing.”
— Karen Russell