Playing for the Devil's Fire is a book written by author Phillippe Diederich, who was born in the Dominican Republic. The book was published in 2016, and is a coming of age novel for a young boy who lives in a Mexican town full of poverty and crime. The Devil's Fire reference refers to a marble that is mentioned in the book, one that all of the boys that play the game of marbles in the town want. However, we come to realize that the marble simply represents the struggles that Boli, the main character, must overcome to grow up to be a successful person in life.
Born in 1964, Phillippe Diederich grew up in the Dominican Republic, Mexico City, and Miami, Florida. Just a year before their son was born, Diederich's parents were thrown out of Haiti by the country's harsh dictator. So far, Diedrich has published two books, both of which have been quite successful and well received. Devil's Fire won the award for the 2017 Young Adult Library Services Association Best Fiction for Young Adults, and the 2017 Best Young Adult Novel by the Texas Institute of Letters.
