1913: After an incident of familial violence, budding arsonist Cotton Steeves is left with burn scars on his back that show an oddly mirrored geometry. Burdened by his would-be magician uncle, who grows obsessed with the scars’ properties, Cotton looks for a way out from under his increasingly erratic influence. It’s time for his next fire.
1993: Ten-year-old Morton Lounsbury collects things. His prized possession is The Ignis Psalter—an anonymous book of pyromaniacal spiritualism addressed to an initiate of flame. And someone or something—ghost, rumour, urban legend—is connected to the book. A meeting with an ageless recluse named Cotton Steeves will change everything Mort knew about his hometown.
Welcome to Petitcodiac, New Brunswick. Welcome to The Village of Fire. In this village of outsiders, moonshiners, fox farmers, and conjurors, a fire-haunted place where the next blaze never seems far away, Cotton must contend with his family’s legacy of burning. and with the help of young Mort Lounsbury, confront his uncle’s shadow once and for all.
Part lyric fairy tale, part small town gothic, The Ignis Psalter is the bizarre and pulpy debut novel from poet and essayist Danny Jacobs, forthcoming from The Porcupine's Quill in Spring 2025.