By Rich Fisher
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kwgs/local-kwgs-930289.mp3
Tulsa, Oklahoma – On today's StudioTulsa, we speak by phone with the North Carolina-based author Jay Varner, whose first book is a recently published memoir, "Nothing Left to Burn." As this book begins, Varner has just finished college, and he's returning to his small hometown in rural Pennsylvania to work for the local newspaper. But coming home, for this writer, means coming back to a world of buried memories, painful lies, nagging questions, and family secrets --- in short, coming back to various past experiences that he's not had to confront since childhood. Varner's grandfather was a "serial arsonist" whose passion for setting things aflame was never really understood by anyone --- and his father was an extremely duty-driven firefighter (and local hero) who died young and somewhat emotionally estranged from his own family. "Nothing Left to Burn" is a searing autobiography that carefully explores, among other topics, how dangerously obsessive behavior can travel in one family across generations.