An urgent and timely novel about the uncertainties of young adulthood, climate anxiety, and the relationships that tie us and the natural world together

During an extraordinarily hot and dry summer, Grady, adrift and depressed after a breakup and a life that feels oppressive and aimless, decides to hike into the woods outside of Vancouver, hoping to reset. Instead, he finds himself hopelessly lost, exhausted, and hungry enough to try to catch a fish and cook it over a fire.

Before he can start, he is spotted by a helicopter carrying eco-tourists, and he is flown back to Vancouver, where he is soon hailed as a survivalist hero — a label Grady distrusts.

When a devastating wildfire breaks out where he was camping, news reports and online sleuths soon blame him for the flames.

As Grady works to make amends with his loved ones and assuage the misplaced guilt he feels about the victims of the fire, he is forced to reckon with his own past, one that is marked by loss, crushing anxiety, and things unsaid. Can he break decades of indecision and rebuild, both his own life and the vitality of a once-bustling town?

Urgent, poetic, and deeply emotional, This Fire Is Your Fault is a timely and biting exploration of contemporary young adulthood, climate anxiety, and threads of connection that bind humans and their decisions to each other and the natural world.