The Flamer : Publication Details

Publication date: Febrary 15, 2012
Imprint: Aqueous Books
Trade Paperback
250 pages; 5.5 " x 8.5 "; $14.00
ISBN: 978-0-9847399-3-6
Publisher: Cynthia Reeser

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Press Release (PDF)
Title Information Page (PDF)
Book Cover: Print | Web

About the Author
Ben Rogers lives in Reno, Nevada with his wife and two daughters. He is a past recipient of a Nevada Arts Council Fellowship and two Sierra Arts Foundation Literary Artist Endowment Grants for his fiction. He studied mechanical engineering and journalism in college and has since worked as an analyst at a business accelerator, a reporter at newspapers, and a research scientist at various labs, including Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Since 2004 he has been Principal Engineer at Nevada Nanotech Systems. He is also the lead author of  Nanotechnology: Understanding Small Systems  (CRC Press), a first-of-its kind, comprehensive textbook on nanotechnology.  His writing can be found at  readrogers.com.

Book Description
The Flamer  is a novel that chronicles the boyhood of a closet pyromaniac. While all boys tinker with fire, Oby Brooks holes up in the backyard shed to experiment with napalm recipes. He has a hand in burning down his own house—twice. And he can’t help it: his very DNA seems made of TNT. Meanwhile, between detonations, Oby’s sexuality is being tested and defined. Parents, mountain men, chemistry teachers, neighbors, and arson inspectors all try in their own quirky ways to usher Oby into adulthood with his fingers and eyelashes intact. In the end, the question is whether Oby’s nature will be nurtured, or neutered. Oh, and, will he land a Nobel Prize?

Blurbs | Advance Praise

The Flamer  is a diabolically funny, explosively tender portrait of youth, a mad scientist’s coming-of-age story. Brainy and splendidly profane, Ben Rogers’s writing is incendiary and hypnotic.  We watch with an arsonist’s glee as his boy genius lights the fuse of his own volatile adolescence. A sizzling debut.
– Claire Vaye Watkins, author of Battleborn

One of the wisest, funniest, strangest novels I’ve ever read, narrated by one of the most unique characters I’ve had the pleasure of meeting in American fiction. I treasure this book.
–Christopher Coake, author of We’re in Trouble and You Came Back

Like Harper Lee and Mark Twain, Ben Rogers has tapped into regional America to scribe a coming-of-age story that is universal in its truths. The Flamer debuts a fine new writer who understands his craft…but even better a writer who understands human nature.
–H. Lee Barnes, member of Nevada Writers Hall of Fame, author of When We Walked Above the Clouds

Rogers gives us a precocious young man with fiery tastes and curious charm. Oby’s captivating journey, from part-time delinquent to self-actualized man, leads us through chemical compounds, atom bombs, desert quarries, and the tricky wilderness of longing.
–Don Waters, critic and author of Desert Gothic

Rogers gets the coming-of-age novel right.
–The Nevada Review