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Chapter Overview
Chapter 1: AudiobookHub Recommendation
Chapter 2: — The Cry That Splits the Night
Chapter 3: — Winter Seats and Hidden Chains
Chapter 4: — The Pulley, the Rope, the Order
Chapter 5: — Corridors of Breath and Windows of Bone
Chapter 6: — Morning Ash and the First Lie
Chapter 7: — Whips, Flyers, and the Price of Breath
Chapter 8: — The Birdcage and the Bargain
Chapter 9: — Procession, Escape, and the Burning of One Life
Chapter 10: — What Survives the Flames
Description
The House Is on Fire reimagines the true 1811 Richmond Theater fire through a tight, cinematic mosaic of perspectives. On a bitter winter night, a benefit performance draws politicians, socialites, workers, and the enslaved into one crowded building. When flames burst above the stage, panic turns architecture into a trap—and survival becomes a matter of seconds, strength, and sheer luck.
Rachel Beanland follows four protagonists as the disaster unfolds and its aftermath ripples outward: a widowed woman navigating a world built for men’s protection that fails her; an enslaved young woman who recognizes that catastrophe can be cover for escape; an enslaved blacksmith propelled into heroism while white authorities search for scapegoats; and a teenage stagehand crushed by culpability and the machinery of denial. The novel’s power lies not only in the fire itself, but in what comes after—how a community mourns, rewrites events, and decides who is blamed, who is saved, and who is allowed to be remembered.
Who Should Listen
- Listeners who love immersive historical fiction rooted in a real event, with vivid period detail and high-stakes momentum.
- Readers drawn to multi-POV survival stories that interrogate class, gender, and race under pressure.
- Fans of character-driven disaster narratives where the emotional aftermath is as gripping as the catastrophe.