Daniel Gumbiner’s New Novel ‘Fire in the Canyon’ Looks at Life After Wildfire

In Daniel Gumbiner’s latest novel, “Fire in the Canyon,” wildfire acts as a plot catalyst and a character. The story follows Ben Hecht, a former pot farmer turned grape grower in California’s Gold Country, who is just getting by when wildfire sweeps through. Both the Hecht family and the land they live on exist in a “state of fragile equilibrium,” in which security is both hard-earned and precarious. We’ll talk to Gumbiner about the emotional costs of climate change and wildfire in California.