The Arsonist

I haven't read a book by Sue Miller (The Senator's Wife, The Lake Shore Limited) in awhile and I liked her newest one. Set in a small town in New Hampshire, it is the story of Frankie Rowley, a young woman who has been working for the past 15 years in East Africa. Exhausted and somewhat jaded about the aid work she is doing in  Africa, she comes home to New Hampshire, where she spent summers as a child and where her retired parents now live. But as soon as she arrives, mysterious fires are being set in summer homes across the town. Tensions are high among the permanent residents and the 'summer people.' She begins a relationship with the publisher of the local newspaper, and tries to make peace with her aging, and ailing parents. This is a book about what home means, and where you belong. Not all questions are answered, and I liked the uncertainty that you are left with at the end of the book. No set answers, just like real life. Very readable, a good summer read.