Once in a House on Fire

Andrea Ashworth, at age twenty-eight one of the youngest fellows at Oxford University, is a young woman of remarkable charm, poise, and intelligence. Her path to her present life, however, has been far from conventional, and in this striking memoir, written with courage and delicacy, she shares a story that makes her achievements all the more astonishing. Although she only vaguely remembers her Maltese father, who died when she was five, Andrea quickly becomes aware that the dark skin she inherited from him sets her apart from her English mother and the series of stepfathers who soon enter her life. Through the sharp and penetrating eyes of childhood, Andrea imparts a vivid and unforgettable portrait of a family terrorized by the explosive rage of one stepfather and then another. Sensitive and observant, the young girl watches the remorse, apologies, and repeated rampages of these men, yet she never gives in to despair. For even in a house where the noise of turning pages is reason enough for brutality, Andrea finds a haven in the work of great writers - Joyce, Eliot, D. H. Lawrence, and others - who allow her to see a world beyond her own and set her on the path toward intellectual and artistic awakening.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction, Fiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.