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WEKU
Gabino Iglesias

'The House Is on Fire' spotlights privilege, sexism, and racism in the 1800s

Sexism Jack Gibson Virginia
(Simon & Schuster)

Good historical fiction must bring to the page something that really happened while also filling in the blanks and treating character development, tension and even dialogue the same way fiction does.

Rachel Beanland's The House Is on Fire, which chronicles the burning of a theater and its tumultuous aftermath in Virginia in 1811, checks off all those elements while also tackling the rampant racism and misogyny of the times in the process.

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