After the Fire: A Memoir in Poetry and Prose

That fire can cleanse as well as destroy is no mystery to J. A. Jance… .

Before she found fame as a bestselling mystery author, Judith Jance wrestled with the anguish of being married to an alcoholic. For years she channeled her pain into words, composing the poems in this moving volume first published in 1984, the year before her debut novel.

In searing and direct language, After the Fire chronicles the collapse of Jance’s marriage under the weight of her huband’s addiction-and her own unwitting denial and co-dependence while she struggled to find herself. I will not be the price of your redemption, she wrote then. I will not pay my life to ransom yours.

An intimate, deeply personal look into a wrenching time in Jance’s life, After the Fire is a portrait of addiction and its insidious effect on lives and love that illuminates universal truths-about unbearable loss and finding the courage to carry on-and offers inspiration and profound insight into the heart and work of a beloved, bestselling writer.