Fires is the best introduction to the full range and humanity of Carver's writing. It contains four essays, including a moving memoir of his father's working life in the saw-mills of the Pacific Northwest, a tribute to his mentor John Gardner, and the title essay about the influences on his writing life; fifty poems, many of them not collected elsewhere; and, seven stories, including three from the early collection Furious Seasons. A disparate collection of work bound by a unity of vision and obsession.