Above the Fire

“Suspenseful and spellbinding…A captivating read, and one that’s hard not to race through. Do yourself a favor, though. Take your time and savor every moment. This is a wonderful book.” Washington Independent Review of Books

Apple Books Pick from Debut Writers to Watch

AudioFile Earphones Award Winner

BookTrib Pick of the Month’s Best Audiobooks

Washington Review Most Popular December Books

Editors’ Pick of the Month, AudioFile Magazine

Go to Michael O’Donnell Main Site

“Above the Fire is a quiet, thrilling, profound book. Set against the backdrop of catastrophe, it is a meditation on fatherhood, love, resilience, and loss. I cannot recommend it highly enough."

Jon Fasman

author of The Geographer's Library and The Unpossessed City

“A prescient, timely novel of sacrifice and consequence, O’Donnell’s debut soars as a modern survival tale full of timeless, biting prose. Fireside reading with a pulse, Above the Fire commands attention and satiates the appetite for a unique plot that honors a classic dilemma. A triumph.”

Ross Ritchell

author of The Knife

“Above the Fire is a timely and tense novel about a loving father forced to prepare his son for a cold and uncertain world. With his terrific debut, O’Donnell invents the counterpart to the 'summer beach read'—call it the 'winter cabin fever read'— and his careful prose thrusts the reader into a worst-case scenario where every choice could mean life or death.”

Kevin Guilfoile

author of The Thousand and Cast of Shadows

Map design by Oscar Brumelis, trailgoals.com

Press/Events

Five Books: The Best Audiobooks of 2024 (so far)

“Behind the Mic” Podcast with Jo Reed and Michelle Cobb

“A Father’s Tale”: Profile in BC Law Magazine

“I’ll Follow You” Podcast: Interview with Allison Felus

AudioFile Earphones Award: “A subtly mesmerizing listen with a stellar performance.”

Washington Independent Review of Books: “A captivating exploration of who we become when the world goes dark.”

The Boston Globe: “A tenderly wrought father-son novel…ripe for book-club discussion.”

Shelf Awareness (starred review): “A terse, well-paced story…a frighteningly plausible national emergency.”

Above the Fire at The Page 69 Test

The Campaign for the American Reader: Interview

Writers Corner Interview on The Nerd Daily

Apple Books: Twelve Writers to Watch. “A bleak yet beautiful portrait of a world in crisis…the stakes feel incredibly real.”

Library Journal: “[A] journey of bonding and healing for a father and son wounded by loss that is surprisingly tender.”

Booklist (starred review): “An utterly gripping debut novel about humans surmounting threats both external and emotional.”

Library Journal Day of Dialogue 2023: Fiction/Survival Panel

Chicago Tribune: When Will the Great Pandemic Novel Be Published?