Ep 108 NHPR John Manuel Arias: WHERE THERE WAS FIRE

Check This Out with Rachel Barenbaum

John Manuel Arias is a queer Costa Rican-American poet and writer who has lived in the U.S. and in Costa Rica where, as he reports, he shared a house with his grandmother and four ghosts. His debut novel, Where There Was Fire, burst onto the scene in August 2023.

Set in Costa Rica, this story follows several generations of women in one family — mothers and daughters — alternating between their lives in the 1960s and the 1990s.

The novel focuses on one major event that reverberates and haunts each generation: a fire that burnt down a banana plantation and in which a father goes missing.

This single event tears the family apart and gives rise to ghosts that keep the characters pushing for answers. Who started the fire? What happened to a missing husband? To a dead mother? Where There Was Fire is about love and secrets, reconciliation and redemption, all focused around the biggest question of all: What is the price of a banana?