The Incendiaries

The Incendiaries (2018), a novel by American author R.O. Kwon, follows Phoebe Lin and Will Kendall, students at the fictional liberal arts school Edwards College, as they are drawn into the circle surrounding John Leal, an Edwards grad turned charismatic cult leader. Kwon’s debut novel, The Incendiaries was nominated for the John Leonard Prize but received mixed reviews. Kirkus Reviews noted that Kwon’s prose is “aesthetically pleasing,” while finding the novel as a whole “narratively underwhelming.”

The novel opens as its narrator, Will, describes a scene: Several people gather on a rooftop to watch an explosion. Will addresses his description to Phoebe and it becomes clear that he is imagining the scene in an attempt to understand her actions.

The rest of the novel switches between Will, Phoebe, and John Leal’s points of view, although Will remains the implied narrator.



As a young child, Korean American Phoebe Lin longs to be a concert pianist. She plays and practices obsessively, and over time, her obsession comes to focus on a particular piece of music. When she finally masters this piece and performs it for her teacher, her teacher rewards her with a gift: the best-known recording of the piece, played by a virtuoso. Listening to it, Phoebe realizes that she will never be able to play the piece as it should be played. That very day she quits the piano for good, withdrawing her applications to music schools and conservatories.

She and her mother argue over this decision. After the argument, Phoebe drives the two of them home, eyes still full of tears. They crash, and Phoebe’s mother is killed. Shortly after these events, Phoebe—still unmoored and grieving—arrives at Edwards.

During the same years, John Leal is working in China, with an NGO helping people escape from North Korea. On a foray across the border, Leal is arrested and sent to the gulag. There he witnesses horrors: “Lives thrown out like trash…A five-year-old child hanged for stealing a little rice. Gang rapes. Everyone was starving. Deprived of rations, a man had eaten the shit-soiled rags used to wipe latrines.” Upon his release, he is marched through a frozen landscape to the Chinese border, haunted by visions of a woman he had watched die in prison. He returns to Noxhurst, the site of Edwards College, with a plan to make himself useful and do God’s work.



Meanwhile, Will grows up in a poor neighborhood in Southern California. While still a young boy, he becomes an evangelical preacher, converting his own mother. He starts early at Bible College, only to lose his faith. He transfers to Edwards as a scholarship student, but, intimidated by his fellow students’ wealth and status, he decides to lie about his origins, concealing the fact that he has to work in an Italian restaurant to cover his tuition.

Will and Phoebe begin dating. One day, Phoebe discovers that Will is working at the restaurant, unraveling his web of lies. Will confesses, explaining his reasons. Phoebe is angry but agrees to continue their relationship if Will promises not to lie to her again.

A friend of Phoebe’s, Liesl, accuses another Edwards student of rape. The fall-out from the accusation is toxic and later that year, Liesl falls from a building and dies in an apparent suicide. These events impact Phoebe’s work, and she is forced to stay at Edwards over the summer to take remedial classes. Meanwhile, Will takes an internship in Beijing and spends the summer alone.



When he returns, he discovers that Phoebe has begun attending meetings of a religious group called Jejah (Korean for “submission”), led by Leal, who had known Phoebe’s father. Leal is a charismatic figure, wandering barefoot through the campus and making his followers perform humiliating tasks. Will pegs him instantly as “a low-rent Jesus freak with Franciscan affectations,” but he cannot persuade Phoebe to disassociate herself from the group.

Will becomes increasingly concerned when Jejah turns its attention to the anti-abortion movement, holding rallies outside the local women’s clinic. From Phoebe’s friend Julian, Will learns that Phoebe blames herself for Liesl’s death. Will tries to persuade Phoebe that she has turned to Jejah from a misplaced sense of guilt, but Phoebe will not accept this. Their fight turns physical and Will rapes Phoebe. Phoebe demands that he never speak to her again, and Will respects this request.

At a party, Will learns that several local women’s clinics have been bombed by terrorists, resulting in five deaths. Sure that Jejah is behind these attacks, and concerned for Phoebe, Will reports his suspicions to the school. The FBI interviews Will, revealing that Phoebe is their primary suspect. Will insists that if Phoebe is responsible, it is only because Leal is manipulating her. The FBI informs Will that Phoebe has committed suicide by jumping into the Hudson.



After he graduates, Will encounters Julian, who knows about the rape and blames Will for Phoebe’s death. Will reveals to the reader that he believes Phoebe is alive and will come back to him someday.