The Great Fire - Softcover

Hazzard, Shirley

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1844080579 ISBN 13: 9781844080571

Publisher: Virago, 2004

Synopsis

The Great Fire is Shirley Hazzard's first novel since The Transit of Venus, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1981. The conflagration of her title is the Second World War. In war-torn Asia and stricken Europe, men and women, still young but veterans of harsh experience, must reinvent their lives and expectations, and learn, from their past, to dream again. Some will fulfill their destinies, others will falter. At the centre of the story, a brave and brilliant soldier finds that survival and worldly achievement are not enough. His counterpart, a young girl living in Occupied Japan and tending her dying brother, falls in love, and in the process discovers herself. In the looming shadow of world enmities resumed, and of Asia's coming centrality in world affairs, a man and a woman seek to recover self-reliance, balance, and tenderness, struggling to reclaim their humanity.

About this title

Review:

'A brilliant, brave and sublimely written novel . . . among the most transcendent works I've ever had the pleasure of reading' -- Anita Shreve

'A brilliant, brave and sublimely written novel ... among the most transcendent works I've ever had the pleasure of reading' -- Anita Shreve

'Brilliant and dazzling . . . a book that is worth a twenty-year wait' -- Ann Patchett, author of Bel Canto

'Brilliant and dazzling...a book that is worth a twenty-year wait' -- Ann Patchett, author of Bel Canto

'Exquisitely crafted . . . the most interesting work of fiction published this year' -- Books of the Year, The Economist

'Exquisitely crafted ... the most interesting work of fiction published this year' -- Books of the Year, The Economist

'Purely and simply, she is one of the greatest writers working in English today' -- Michael Cunningham

'Purely and simply, she is one of the greatest writers working in English today'
-- Michael Cunningham

'The greatest living writer on goodness and love . . .
The Great Fire, so overwhelmed me that I came close to being unable to read the last three pages. If the last sentence doesn't make you gasp and weep, you are not fully conscious . . . Shirley Hazzard, the quiet, playful, lovestruck artist of love, goodness and death in the 20th century. ' -- Bryan Appleyard

'The writing is a lesson to us all' -- Colm Toibin, Irish Times

Book Description:

The sweeping story of men and women struggling to reclaim their lives in the aftermath of world conflict by 'one of the greatest writers working in English today' (Michael Cunningham) and Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction.

About this edition

• Publisher: Virago
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1844080579
• ISBN 13: 9781844080571
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320