. >> national book award winner author timothy egan the "the big burn," recalls the largest forest firestory. mr. egan recalls the struggle of forest fires. the "christian science monitor" "los angeles times" and "kansas city star" selected "the big burn" as one of their top books in 2009. fact and fiction bookstore in montana hosts the hour-long event. >> thank you so much. it's terrific to be here in montana. i've been on a book tour, i've been at 25 cities. now i'm home basically where the fire started. the source of the story and the source for so many joy for me in spokane and fishing in the creek and now trying to look at that time as a storyteller so thank you for coming out on this gorgeous, chris him wonderful montana night. the rest of us could look at us with envy. first i wanted to open with a wonderful quote from one of my favorite quote from an author who didn't have his first book published until he was 70 years old but it took a long time for that masterpiece and it was called "a river runs through it" and he said -- they were ministers kids, they grew up in montana. the