Holding Fire A Love Story Author:Elissa Wald Elissa Wald does for the culture of firefighting what Sebastian Junger did for commercial fishing and the inner-life of storms in this tough, compassionate story. A heroicyet traumatizedVietnam vet turned fireman, an aspiring writer who works as a stripper to make ends meet, and a compelling cast of characters comprise the far from perfect world... more » portrayed in Holding Fire . With prose that is at once realistic and lyrical, Wald draws the reader into a world of courage and catastrophe in this modern tragedy about firemen and the people who love them. Junot Diaz calls Holding Fire, "A fine, passionately wrought novel... [her] vision of the world has much to teach us about the brevity of desire and the longevity of pain." Pat Conroy says, "Elissa Wald is a brave new voice in American fiction. She works all the margins of the wild side, and brings us news from those frontiers that very few writers have dared to approach."« less