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Synopsis
The hero is Marshall Pearl born in a sea battle in an illegal immigrant ship of the coast of Palestine in 1947. Adopted into America by the wealthy and childless Livingstons, he grows up on a Hudson Valley estate, taught by his adventures on the river riding ice floes, jumping freights, climbing precipices and shaped by the imperatives of his own personality and destiny – his peculiar sensitivity to light, his astonishing seizures and visions, his battle with an eagle. Always restless, always attracted by forces and affinities just beyond his grasp, he begins to move outward in childhood for an idyllic summer in the Rockies; as an adolescent to the tropical forests of Jamaica and the Rastaferian Rebellion; as a young man to the graceful traditions of Harvard, to the Great Plains, to New Orleans and Charleston, to the Alps, and finally to Israel. En route we see him in trouble and in triumph, in and out of scrapes, now broke and hungry, now surrounded by riches, now on the bottom and out of control, now on top and in command. And he is always in love: with sunburn (always perfect) Lydia, or with the lithe and (almost) unattainable Dash, or with gentle Alexa, or with the strong wild and beautiful Nancy May Baker...until one becomes central to this life.
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From the Back Cover
"That best of all possible novels: read ten pages and you can't put it down; finish it and you'll feel it haunt your days and nights." - The San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle
Refiner's Fire is the story of Marshall Pearl, orphaned at birth aboard an illegal immigrant ship off the coast of Palestine in 1947 and brought as an infant into the "ardent unlimitedness" of America. Determined to see the world in its beauty, ferocity, and ultimate justice, he does so, in scenes of gorgeous color and great excitement, as a child in the Hudson Valley, fighting Rastifarians in Jamaica, at Harvard, in a slaughterhouse on the Great Plains, in the Mexican desert, on the sea, and in the Alps. Finally he is drawn to Israel to confront the logic of his birth, in a crucible of war, magic, suffering, and grace. At the opening of the book, he is one of the dying wounded being transported to Haifa during the 1973 war. We follow him as he dreams, reconstructing his life, until, by the strength of what he has learned, suffered, and hoped, Marshall Pearl rises.
"Every once in a while a book appears that engulfs you in its limitless beauty. This is such a book. Helprin's use of language and imagery is an ineffable joy." - The Philadelphia Inquirer
"Refiner's Fire is an experience, like being shot out of a cannon - exhilarating, extravagant, vertiginous." - The Boston Globe
Educated at Harvard, Princeton, and Oxford, Mark Helprin served in the Israeli army, Israeli Air Force, and British Merchant Navy. He is the author of, among other titles, Refiner's Fire, Ellis Island and Other Stories, Winter's Tale, A Soldier of the Great War, Memoir from Antproof Case, The Pacific and Other Stories, and Freddy and Fredericka.
About the Author
MARK HELPRIN is the acclaimed author of Winter's Tale, A Soldier of the Great War, Freddy and Fredericka, The Pacific, Ellis Island, Memoir from Antproof Case, and numerous other works. His novels are read around the world, translated into over twenty languages.
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Refiners Fire
Seller: BoundlessBookstore, Wallingford, United Kingdom
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: Good. First edition. Light wear to boards. Content is clean and bright. Good DJ with some edge wear and light fading. Seller Inventory # 9999-99990404155
Quantity: 1 available