First published 2026
NBC News correspondent Jacob Soboroff receives an urgent text from his brother on January 7, 2025: "Big Palisades fire. We are evacuating." The attached photo shows black smoke rising behind his brother's house, where he lives with his pregnant wife. Soboroff rushes to cover the story as flames consume the neighborhood where he grew up. For weeks, he reports live from the front lines as fires spread from the Palisades to Altadena, interviewing displaced residents and pressing Governor Gavin Newsom on Meet the Press. Despite covering family separations at the border, war in Ukraine, and chaos in Haiti, nothing prepared him for watching his childhood landmarks burn. The experience launches months of investigation with firefighters, scientists, and emergency officials who reveal a disturbing truth: the 2025 LA fires represent America's costliest natural disaster and a preview of worse to come. Soboroff discovers he witnessed not just personal tragedy but a glimpse into the dystopian world his children will inherit.
Genres: environment, non-fiction, 21st-century, journalism, current-affairs, climate-change, american-history
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, thought-provoking
Tropes: personal-tragedy, societal-collapse
Setting: Altadena, California, Los Angeles, Palisades
Period: 2025
272 pages · Hardcover · Mariner Books