Another Kind of Fire

A novel by Jason Z. Morris

Another Kind of Fire is the story of Jake Luria and of his family, brilliant, broken people looking for solace: some in Jewish mysticism, some in Indian spirituality, and some in more worldly success.

Jake is a graduate student at Harvard, struggling to earn his biology PhD under hostile, high-pressure conditions. While searching for the cause of his sister’s mental collapse, Jake discovers accumulated wounds that his family members have inflicted on each other. Jake does everything he can to keep his family from being torn apart by their unraveling secrets, but he feels inadequate to the heavy demands he has placed on himself. Terrified of losing them, unsure how he can accept them, Jake fights for his family’s survival and his own.

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-934639-31-3

e-book ISBN: 978-1-934639-32-0

Chami and Shim Publications

available wherever books are sold

About the Author

Jason Z Morris is a professor of biology in the Department of Natural Sciences at Fordham University. He lives in New Rochelle with his wife, and he has two adult children. Another Kind of Fire is his second novel. His first novel is Thicker Than Mud.

Reviews of Another Kind of Fire

“A graduate student struggles to overcome generations of inherited trauma and an existential crisis in Morris’ novel...
From the first page of this stunning, melancholic story, readers will understand the amount of pressure Jake is under and will likely feel it themselves. Morris’ prose is honest and hauntingly poetic, evincing a deep, breathtaking emotionality. All of the characters are wonderfully complex, especially Jake, who, unlike some of his more clichéd counterparts in contemporary literature and film, is empathetic and thoughtful. While readers may initially blanch at the weight of the emotional subject matter, Morris treats the sensitive topics with care, delivering an enthralling read from cover to cover. A haunting, slow-burning story about the hunger for connection and the pressures of family.” –Kirkus Reviews

“Another Kind of Fire offers an brilliant, eviscerating and, at times, darkly funny critique of the abuses of academia and a skeptical but empathetic exploration of multiple faith traditions.” –Matthew Maguire, playwright, actor, and director, author of The Tower, Phaedra, and Chaos

Thicker Than Mud is the story of Adam Drascher, a Jewish archaeology professor at a small Jesuit college in the Bronx, is at a standstill: Adam is in love with his former mentor, though he knows that relationship has no future, and though his tenure decision is approaching, Adam has little to show for his efforts studying the cult of the dead in ancient Israel. Everything changes for Adam when he discovers a tablet that sheds light on the Healers, shadowy underworld figures in Canaanite myth and in the Bible, on the same day that he loses his grandfather, the man who raised him. As Adam mourns for his grandfather and labors to interpret the text of the tablet, he unearths family secrets that test his loyalties and entangle him in the police investigation of an old family friend.

paperback ISBN: 978-1532687242

ebook ISBN: 978-1532687266

Available wherever books are sold or email the author to receive a signed copy ($9.99 plus shipping).