Signal Fires: A novel
On a summer night in 1985, three teenagers have been drinking. One of them gets behind the wheel of a car, and, in an instant, everything changes.
A TIME Best Fiction Book of the Year • A Washington Post Notable Work of Fiction • A Real Simple Best Book of the Year
Signal Fires opens on a summer night in 1985. Three teenagers have been drinking. One of them gets behind the wheel of a car, and, in an instant, everything on Division Street changes. Each of their lives, and that of Ben Wilf, a young doctor who arrives on the scene, is shattered. For the Wilf family, the circumstances of that fatal accident will become the deepest kind of secret, one so dangerous it can never be spoken.
On Division Street, time has moved on. When the Shenkmans arrive—a young couple expecting a baby boy—it is as if the accident never happened. But when Waldo, the Shenkmans’ brilliant, lonely son who marvels at the beauty of the world and has a native ability to find connections in everything, befriends Dr. Wilf, now retired and struggling with his wife’s decline, past events come hurtling back in ways no one could ever have foreseen.
In Dani Shapiro’s first work of fiction in fifteen years, she returns to the form that launched her career, with a riveting, deeply felt novel that examines the ties that bind families together—and the secrets that can break them apart. Signal Fires is a work of haunting beauty by a masterly storyteller.
A TIME Best Fiction Book of the Year • A Washington Post Notable Work of Fiction • A Real Simple Best Book of the Year
Signal Fires opens on a summer night in 1985. Three teenagers have been drinking. One of them gets behind the wheel of a car, and, in an instant, everything on Division Street changes. Each of their lives, and that of Ben Wilf, a young doctor who arrives on the scene, is shattered. For the Wilf family, the circumstances of that fatal accident will become the deepest kind of secret, one so dangerous it can never be spoken.
On Division Street, time has moved on. When the Shenkmans arrive—a young couple expecting a baby boy—it is as if the accident never happened. But when Waldo, the Shenkmans’ brilliant, lonely son who marvels at the beauty of the world and has a native ability to find connections in everything, befriends Dr. Wilf, now retired and struggling with his wife’s decline, past events come hurtling back in ways no one could ever have foreseen.
In Dani Shapiro’s first work of fiction in fifteen years, she returns to the form that launched her career, with a riveting, deeply felt novel that examines the ties that bind families together—and the secrets that can break them apart. Signal Fires is a work of haunting beauty by a masterly storyteller.
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Community Reviews
Wow! I didn’t expect this book to be so psychologically sharp. Signal Fires is quietly devastating in how it explores parenting, especially the inner lives of fathers who come off as harsh or emotionally distant, not out of cruelty but because they never learned how to communicate tenderness, and mothers who love fiercely, sometimes to the point of overprotecting their children and unintentionally limiting their emotional growth. Dani Shapiro really digs into what happens when grief is left unspoken, when mistakes go unaddressed, when trauma settles in and becomes something a family learns to live around instead of through. The weight of all that lingers across generations.
The line “Some children grow like orchids, some like weeds” stayed with me when it comes to parenting. It captures how unevenly children experience the same household, and how parents, often without realizing it, can cause harm by assuming one child is “stronger” and therefore needs less care, less softness, less attention. That kind of quiet neglect, even when rooted in love or necessity, can lead to deep emotional repression that only surfaces much later in life, as it does in Sarah's character in the book.
The timeline of this book isn’t linear, and at first, I felt that revealing future events early on took away some of the tension. I kept thinking the story might have hit harder if certain moments unfolded without the knowledge of the future. But by the end, I changed my mind. That structure shifts the focus away from what happens and toward how people carry what happens, the guilt, the regret, the longing, the things they never say. Instead of suspense, the book leans into reflection, making the emotional impact more profound. It’s less about solving a mystery and more about sitting with the consequences of love, loss, and the stories families tell themselves to survive.
We rated this about a 6…we all agreed that the story idea was good but the book really didn’t go anywhere. We enjoyed it, just wasn’t very memorable.
I don't know what I was expecting from this, but I listened to the audiobook and pretty much disliked most of the characters. While I thought it was well written and an easy listen, I didn't see the point in any of this. I would have much more enjoyed the connectivity of the families if they weren't so forced. Mimi's death was incredibly stupid and forced to show us...what? That Waldo has supernatural abilities? I can get on board with him having abilities; I fully believe that some people have extra perceptive abilities, however... This is supposed to be some grand reveal or awakening moment, and it's just so forced it's annoying. And I absolutely hate when authors fixate on a character's weight. I do not care how fat Theo's family thinks he is every time they see him. He's restaurant and "success" sound so incredibly obnoxious because the author is terrible at writing him as humble, despite the clearly bad attempt. Sarah was just completely unlikable with no redeeming qualities. Using her alcoholism as a vehicle for her bad behavior is just lazy writing. I wanted her to kill herself and bring her family back together so at least the character would have had a purpose. She's literally the reason her mom is dead as well as the girl from the accident. It actually IS all her fault and she has zero consequences including her husband not dumping her cheating ass on the spot. So again, if this had been a book about human nature and grief and struggle and redemption, that would have been one thing. If it would have been about supernatural connectivity and a young boy's self discovery, that would have been one thing. Shoving them together infuriated me and just resulted in an unsuccessful, stupid book.
This was a wonderful novel. The author writes beautifully and engages with major life issues involving family, secrets, birth and death.
I recommend it.
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