The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers - Softcover

Mullen, Thomas

3.66

1,285 ratings by Goodreads

9780007340828: The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007340826 ISBN 13: 9780007340828

Publisher: Fourth Estate, 2010

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Jason and Whit Fireson, the notorious, bank-robbing duo known as the Firefly Brothers, wake to find themselves lying on cooling boards in a police morgue. Riddled with bullet wounds, the reality is inescapable: they've been killed. But they're alive.

It is August of 1934, in the midst of the Great Depression but in the waning months of the great Crime Wave, during which the newly-created FBI killed such famous outlaws as John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, and Pretty Boy Floyd. Across the nation, men are out of work and families are starving, and Americans are stunned and frightened by the collapse of their country's foundations.

The Firesons' lovers Darcy and Veronica struggle between grief and an unyielding belief that Jason and Whit have survived, while their stunned mother and straight-arrow third brother desperately try to support their family and evade police spies. And through it all the Firefly Brothers themselves race to find the women they love, and make sense of a world that has come unmoored.

Complete with kidnappings and gangsters, heiresses and speakeasies, The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers combines the stark realism of a troubled time with all the myth-making magic of the American Dream itself. It is an imaginative and breathless story about being hopelessly outgunned – and tells a tale of danger, redemption, and love that transcends death.

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Review:

Amazon Best Books of the Month, January 2010: Set against the bleak backdrop of Depression-era America, The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers is the story of Jason and Whit Fireson, a fictional pair of bank-robbing siblings, and their flirtation with immortality. Famous for daring heists and impossible escapes, the brothers are regarded as either scourges or saviors by followers across the country, but after narrowly surviving a botched ambush, the duo is forced to rely on larger-than-life rumors if they hope to keep themselves (and their legacy) alive. With the American way of life seemingly on the brink of extinction, the dramatic exploits of the Firefly Gang are all that anyone can truly believe in. "Facts make only so much sense on their own," explains the narrator, "when they are laid bare...with nothing to animate them." With characters that practically beg for sepia tone treatments, author Thomas Mullen provides an exciting and provocative tale about the vagaries of justice and truth. --Dave Callanan

About the Author:

Thomas Mullen is the author of The Last Town on Earth, which was named Best Debut Novel of the Year by USA Today and Best Book of the Year by Chicago Tribune, and won the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for excellence in historical fiction. He lives in Atlanta with his wife and son.

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