Fire tore through the heart of St. John’s, Newfoundland, three times in the nineteenth century. It left behind utter destitution and an urgent need to rebuild. Survivors were forced to look inward for the strength to start afresh. St. John’s: City of Fire is an historical account of these three fires. It weaves through eyewitness accounts of the conflagrations, depicting the panic and the infighting, as well as the devotion to St. John’s and the determination to see the city rise again.

Paul Butler is the author of several critically acclaimed novels including Titanic Ashes, Cupids, Hero, 1892, NaGeira, Easton’s Gold, Easton, and Stoker’s Shadow. His work has appeared on the judges’ lists for Canada Reads, the Relit Longlist for three consecutive years, and he was a winner in the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador Arts and Letters Awards four times between 2003 and 2008 at which time he retired from the competition to be literary representative, and then chair, of the Arts and Letters Committee. A graduate of Norman Jewison’s Canadian Film Centre, Butler has written for the Globe and Mail, the Beaver, Books in Canada, Atlantic Books Today, and Canadian Geographic, and has also contributed to CBC Radio, local and national. He presently lives in Corner Brook, Newfoundland, where he works as an editor, runs online writing workshops, and holds an annual writing contest.

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