Summary

The Incendiaries tells the story of Will Kendall and Phoebe Lin, two students at an elite east coast college named Edwards, in a town named Noxhurst, who become involved in a violent cult with links to North Korea.

In Chapter 1, a character identified as Will imagines a group of people climbing to the top of a tall building in order to watch another building being destroyed by an explosion. Will imagines the watchers singing a “Jejah psalm” (1) and toasting with wine glasses after the explosion. Will imagines a man named John Leal taking a woman aside and assuring her that they had done the right thing, but that there was still more to do. The chapter ends with Will directly addressing a character named Phoebe, pointing out that people died in the explosion, and telling her that he is trying to understand her actions...