Hestia Strikes a Match

A Best Book of the Year at NPR A Must-Read at The Washington Post,Oprah Dailyand The Orange County Register ΓÇ£Steamysmartand hilarious.ΓÇ¥ ΓÇöOprah Daily ΓÇ£Effervescent . . . Acerbically funny and tender . . . [A] supremely layeredemotionally and intellectually resonant novel for our time.ΓÇ¥ ΓÇöLauren LeBlancThe Boston Globe Christine GrilloΓÇÖs Hestia Strikes a Match is the slyly funny story of a woman looking for love and friendship in the midst of a new American civil war. The year is 2023and things are badΓÇöbadbut still not as bad as they could be. Hestia Harris is forty-twoabandoned by her husband (he left to fight for the Union cause)and estranged from her parents (theyΓÇÖre leaving for the Confederacy). Yesthe United States has collapsed into a second civil war and again itΓÇÖs Unionists against Confederateschildren against parentsfriends against friends. Hestia has left journalism (too much war reporting) for a job at a Baltimore retirement village on the Inner Harbor (lots of security). SheΓÇÖs single and adriftsave for her coworkers and Mildredan eighty-four-year-oldthrice-happily-married resident who gleefully supports HestiaΓÇÖs half-hearted but hopeful attempts to find love again in a time of chaos and disunion. She reckons with the big questions (How do we live in the midst of political collapse? How do we love people who believe terrible things?) and the little ones (How do I decorate a nonworking fireplace? Can I hook up with a mime?)all while wrestling with that simmeringroilingoccasionally boiling feeling that things are decidedly not okaybut we have to keep goingone foot in front of the otherbecause maybejust maybewe can still find the kinds of relationships that sustain a person through anything. Christine GrilloΓÇÖs Hestia Strikes a Match is an irreverentincisivelaugh-out-loud interrogation of modern love of all kindsin all its messy beauty. Equal parts wise and hilariousit fills the heartfortifies the spiritand will surely help to fend off despair. In the face of the everyday wildness of our timesit asks and answers that newly constant question: How do we make a fullwonderfully ordinary life when the whole mad world is clattering down around us?