News

Six months after wildfires tore through Altadena and Pacific Palisades, we’re still wrestling with what’s been lost. Novelist Michelle Huneven is rebuilding her home after the Eaton Fire. Her latest book, Bug Hollow, opens in 1970s Altadena, as the Samuelson family copes with their son’s death. He died in an accident during his first few college days. Readers follow his parents, sisters, and family friends across multiple decades and locations as they struggle with grief, dislocation, and addiction. Ultimately, they manage to find love and meaning.

Huneven, who teaches creative writing at UCLA, has collected multiple honors for her writing, including a Guggenheim Fellowship. Bug Hollow has been deemed a great summer read by The New York Times, Oprah Daily, and The Boston Globe.

Huneven tells KCRW that while her family is doing relatively well post-fire — they “had a soft landing and good insurance” — she’s sad. That sorrow didn’t hit immediately because of all the shock and tasks to do, like buying clothes, she explains.

Three times a week, she also visits her property to water the surviving roses, and negotiate to get rid of trees and stumps that the Army Corps of Engineers didn’t remove. The process is long and involved, she describes.

The rebuilding process has already broken ground. Her family owns two properties, she clarifies. They’re building a little house where their rental used to be, so they can live there while their larger house gets rebuilt too.

She initially waffled on rebuilding, wondering what the point was if the house(s) would burn down again. “But then you realize it’s your home, and you miss it, and you love it, and you love your neighbors, and you want that again,” she says.

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