As a teenager, it was never Sam Pulsifer's intention to torch an American landmark, and he certainly never planned to kill two people in the blaze. To this day, he still wonders why that young couple was upstairs in bed in the Emily Dickinson House after hours.

After serving ten years in prison for his crime, Sam is determined to put the past behind him. He fifinishes college, begins a career, falls in love, gets married, has two adorable kids, and buys a home. His low-profifile life is chugging along quite nicely until the past comes crashing through his front door.

<Br> As the homes of Robert Frost, Edith Wharton, Herman Melville, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, and even a replica of Henry David Thoreau's cabin at Walden Pond, go up in smoke, Sam becomes the number one suspect. Finding the real culprit is the only way to clear his name—but sometimes there's a terrible price to pay for the truth.

<Br> An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England is a tour de force—a novel disguised as a memoir, a mystery that cloaks itself in humor, and an artful piece of literature that bites the hand that breeds it.

布洛克•克拉克（Brock Clarke，1968—）是美国近年涌现的“另类”作家。他的文风诡异辛辣，情节设置出人意表，以黑色幽默、荒诞喜剧作品见长。著有五部长篇及大量短篇小说和散文，其中2007年出版的《我烧了大文豪的家》一书得到评论界和图书市场的热烈反响，不仅当即获选亚马逊“当月好书”，迅速打入各大畅销榜，而且获得多国书商青睐，被译成十几种文字。