Sam Pulsifer spent ten years in prison for accidentally burning down poet Emily Dickinson's house - and unwittingly killing two people in the process. He emerged aged twenty-eight, went to college, found love, got married, fathered two children, and made a new start - and then watched as the vengeful past caught up with him, right at his own front door. As the homes of other famous New England writers are torched, Sam knows that this time he is not guilty. To prove his innocence, he sets out to uncover the identity of this literary-minded arsonist. Sam learns that the truth has a way of eluding capture, and then, when you finally get close enough to embrace it, it turns and kicks you in the ass.
