--- title: Fire Exit: 100 Must-Read Books of 2024 description: Find out why "Fire Exit" is on TIME's list of the must-read books of the year. canonical: https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172853/fire-exit/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-11-13T13:08:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-03T00:42:34.029Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: 'Fire Exit' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2024 og:description: Here's why it made the list og:url: https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172853/fire-exit/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt351795b28f9c0f08/698a8d0e09208ff09d4229c8/Fire-Exit-Morgan-Talty.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 'Fire Exit' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2024 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Fire Exit' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2024 twitter:description: Here's why it made the list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt351795b28f9c0f08/698a8d0e09208ff09d4229c8/Fire-Exit-Morgan-Talty.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Nov 13, 2024 # Fire Exit by [Rachel Sonis](https://time.com/author/rachel-sonis/) ## Rachel Sonis Sonis is an Ideas editor at TIME.  Set on and around the Penobscot Reservation in Maine, Morgan Talty’s debut novel follows Charles Lamosway, a man grappling with a huge secret. For the last 20 years, he has watched his daughter Elizabeth grow up on the reservation while he lives just outside of it, across the river. Elizabeth’s mom doesn’t want Charles to have a relationship with his daughter—largely because of [Blood Quantum](https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2018/02/09/583987261/so-what-exactly-is-blood-quantum), a controversial Colonial-era practice that determines how much Indigenous blood a person possesses in their lineage. To secure her daughter’s place on the reservation (where the author also grew up), Elizabeth’s mother marries another man from Penobscot nation who claims Elizabeth as his own. Now, Charles—burdened by his sick mother and his own past—finally feels ready to tell Elizabeth his true identity. Only, suddenly, she goes missing. A follow-up to Talty’s award-winning short story collection [_Night on the Living Rez_](https://time.com/collection/must-read-books-2022/6228595/night-of-the-living-rez/), _Fire Exit_ untangles Charles’ history, lineage, and heartache while asking larger questions about the impact of white colonialism on Indigenous identity. The result is a tender and unwavering look at the experience of a community that attempts to grapple with its painful past—and its future. **Buy Now:** _Fire Exit_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9781959030553) | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/4hPso4a) | [Barnes & Noble](https://fave.co/3YUt94p) These are independent reviews of the products mentioned, but TIME receives a commission when purchases are made through affiliate links at no additional cost to the purchaser. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172853/fire-exit/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172853/fire-exit/"},"headline":"Fire Exit","datePublished":"2024-11-13T13:08:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:42:34.029Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172853/fire-exit/","keywords":["Books","E-Commerce","list","franchise"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt351795b28f9c0f08/698a8d0e09208ff09d4229c8/Fire-Exit-Morgan-Talty.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Rachel Sonis","jobTitle":"Sonis is an Ideas editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/rachel-sonis/"}],"creator":"Rachel Sonis","articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt351795b28f9c0f08/698a8d0e09208ff09d4229c8/Fire-Exit-Morgan-Talty.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172853/fire-exit/","name":"Fire Exit"}}]}] ```