Fire in the Ashes

Twenty-Five Years Among the Poorest Children in America

By: Jonathan Kozol

Narrated by: Keythe Farley

Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

In this powerful and culminating work about a group of inner-city children he has known for many years, Jonathan Kozol returns to the scene of his prize-winning books Rachel and Her Children and Amazing Grace, and to the children he has vividly portrayed, to share with us their fascinating journeys and unexpected victories as they grow into adulthood.

For nearly 50 years Jonathan has pricked the conscience of his readers by laying bare the savage inequalities inflicted upon children for no reason but the accident of being born to poverty within a wealthy nation. A winner of the National Book Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, and countless other honors, he has persistently crossed the lines of class and race, first as a teacher, then as the author of tender and heart-breaking books about the children he has called "the outcasts of our nation’s ingenuity." But Jonathan is not a distant and detached reporter. His own life has been radically transformed by the children who have trusted and befriended him.

Never has this intimate acquaintance with his subjects been more apparent, or more stirring, than in Fire in the Ashes, as Jonathan tells the stories of young men and women who have come of age in one of the most destitute communities of the United States. Some of them never do recover from the battering they undergo in their early years, but many more battle back with fierce and, often, jubilant determination to overcome the formidable obstacles they face. As we watch these glorious children grow into the fullness of a healthy and contributive maturity, they ignite a flame of hope, not only for themselves, but for our society.

The urgent issues that confront our urban schools - a devastating race-gap, a pathological regime of obsessive testing and drilling students for exams instead of giving them the rich curriculum that excites a love of learning - are interwoven through these stories. Why certain children rise above it all, graduate from high school and do well in college, while others are defeated by the time they enter adolescence, lies at the essence of this work.

Jonathan Kozol is the author of Death at an Early Age, Savage Inequalities, and other books on children and their education. He has been called "today’s most eloquent spokesman for America’s disenfranchised." But he believes young people speak most eloquently for themselves; and in this book, so full of the vitality and spontaneity of youth, we hear their testimony.

©2012 Jonathan Kozol (P)2012 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Engrossing chronicle of lives blighted and redeemed.... Eschewing social science jargon and deploying extraordinary powers of observation and empathy, Kozol crafts dense, novelistic character studies that reveal the interplay between individual personality and the chaos of impoverished circumstances.... Like a latter-day Dickens (but without the melodrama), he gives us another powerful indictment of America's treatment of the poor. ( Publisher's Weekly)

"In this engaging, illuminating, often moving book, [Kozol] recounts the lives of poor black and Latino children - many now close friends - who once lived in Manhattan's Martinique Hotel.... Cleareyed, compassionate and hopeful." ( Kirkus Reviews)

"An engaging look at the broader social implications of ignoring poverty as well as a very personal look at individuals struggling to overcome it." ( Booklist)

T his book was great

I enjoyed this book so much even though what it talks about which is homelessness.

A hauting but beautiful book

What did you like best about this story?

The stories are hauntingly beautiful. They, at once, remind me of my blessing and of my country's still very shaky social and economic challenges. They should be listened/read by all Americans at least a few times.

Which scene was your favorite?

Too many to count, but when one of the young men returned from prison educated rather than hardened, it truly gave me hope.

Any additional comments?

The narrator's voice was beautiful. It warms and grounds the stories, giving even the most unhappy story a soft, resilient glow. That said, his mimicking of most people all sounds like Southern women. Kinda funny.

Beautiful and heartbreaking

Had to read this for a class, left emotionally changed. Fantastic writing wonderful people great work.

it was depressing. do not waste your time.

this book was literally cancer. it made me very sad. but if your in that to that sort of thing go ahead