Love and arson in rural Virginia

Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Hans Weyandt of Milkweed Books in Minneapolis.

For summer reading, bookseller Hans Weyandt said he often turns to true crime: "It's a guilty pleasure of mine."

And this summer, he recommends "American Fire."

One night in 2012, in a rural part of Virginia, an abandoned house went up in flames.

Then came another fire. And another.

Over the next five months, the area saw 86 different fires: An arsonist was at at work.

In "American Fire," journalist Monica Hesse writes about these fires, their impact and those responsible.

"The big kicker in this is that the people involved in the arson are not just men, which is a very rare thing," Weyandt said. "It's a couple — a man and a woman. They're not really posited so much as Bonnie and Clyde, as they are two people in a dying part of the country, in a dying relationship. [Hesse] does a fascinating look inside their lives and the place."

American Fire American Fire

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