THE LAST FIRE SEASON

A memoir about living with wildfires in Northern California.

Growing up in that region of the country, Martin was familiar with fire season, which usually occurred in autumn. Over the years, however, she noticed that fire season had both lengthened and intensified. In 2017, following a personal health crisis, Martin and her partner, Max, purchased a home and moved from the city to the woods of Sonoma County. Through tending her garden, Martin found a sense of healing, but a couple of years later, her place of solace became endangered. In 2020, California experienced one of the most intense fire seasons in recent history. Martin chronicles how she dealt with the devastation, and her language ably captures her fear and uncertainty. “Above the redwoods fathomless clouds lingered like silence,” she writes. “From inside them the furious sky hurled its energy at millions of acres of dry, deep wood. I had never seen so many lightning strikes. The blades of electricity bisected the air, the earth, everything.” Upon returning home, Martin found her garden “sepia toned and slightly out of focus: weeks of heat and smoke had turned the flowers and trees into memories.” The author also discusses Indigenous land-management practices, and she contends that individuals have been willfully ignoring the many obvious effects of climate change “to assuage…feelings of guilt” or “as a way to cope, to keep going.” As Martin notes, “fire was always a naturally occurring part of the landscape in the American West.” However, due to human-caused problems, wildfires have become more unpredictable. Martin argues that a fundamental shift in the dominant culture’s attitude toward fire and nature is necessary. We can no longer think in terms of a “fire season.” We must now learn to adapt to living with fire throughout the year.

Insightful and alarming, hopeful and consistently engaging.