UIDB/04209/2020 UIDP/04209/2020; Fires in rural landscapes were imagined and represented in Portuguese literature from the early 20th century to the present. We analysed a set of 55 excerpts from 43 published texts produced by 29 writers. These excerpts, which we call pyrostories, convey a literary and historical perspective of how and why those fires occur and their impacts as socioecological drivers. Arsonist...