Book Description
This morning I met the man who started the fire. He did something terrible, but then, so have I. I left him. I left him and now he may be dead.
Once upon a time there was a beautiful village that held a million stories of love and loss and peace and war, and it was swallowed up by a firs that blazed up to the sky. The fire ran all the way down to the sea where it met with its reflection.
A family from two nations, England and Greece, live a simple life on a tiny Greek island: Irini, Tasso and their daughter, lovely, sweet Chara, whose names means joy. Their life goes up in flames in a single day when one man starts a fire out of greed and indifference. Many are killed, homes are destroyed, and the island’s natural beauty wiped out.
In the wake of the fire, Chara bears scars across her back and arms. Tasso is frozen in trauma, devasted that he wasn’t there when his family most needed him. And Irini is crippled by guilt at her part in the fate of the man who started the fire.
But this family has survived, and slowly green shoots of hope and renewal will grow from the smouldering ruins of devastation.
My Thoughts
Thank you to the publisher, I was sent a proof copy of The Book of Fire after publication day, in the Autumn of last year, it sat on my shelf a little while, but having loved Songbirds, I was confident I would enjoy this book and I am pleased to say I was not wrong.
Set in a small Greek village, Irini and Tasso, their daughter Chara and their dog live a happy life. We meet them on the day of the fire when Irini and her daughter flee to the sea, where they spend hours waiting to be rescued, several days pass and they are looked after by the kindness of strangers before they reunite with Tasso who is in hospital, burns to his hands impact his career as a painter but he is riddled with guilt and trauma following the fire.
We live the moments of the fire with Irini and the immediate hours and days afterwards, but a parallel story tells life post the fire, Tasso is frozen spending days sat alone and quiet outside, not interacting with his wife and daughter and largely absent. Irini struggles on dealing with the loss of her husband who is still there. Coming to terms with the losses of the fire, when she encounters the man who started the fire, a business man who burnt the forest because he wanted the land to build on. This interaction changes her and she finds her self guilt ridden
This is a beautiful story of trauma and healing, exploring the fire, is one man to blame or are we all to blame, the spread of the fire linked to climate change and environmental issues. The story tangibly details the impact of the fire on the small Greek community, with everybody affected and dealing with loss. The writing is beautiful and the book is highly readable.
Thank you again to the publisher for my proof copy of The Book of Fire, who else has read this one or is planning to?
Thanks as always for reading.
About the Author
Brought up in London, Christy Lefteri is the child of Cypriot refugees. Her novel, The Beekeeper of Aleppo, is an international bestseller, selling well over a million copies worldwide and published in over 40 countries. The Beekeeper of Aleppo won the Aspen Literary Prize, runner up for The Dayton Literary Prize and won the Prix de l>Union Interalliee for Best Foreign novel in France. It is currently being performed as a play, adapted by Nesrin Alrefaai, and Matthew Spangler for The Nottingham Playhouse, and touring the UK. Songbirds, her follow up novel, was a Sunday Times and international bestseller
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