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Original Essays | December 12, 2009

Alexander McCall Smith: IMG The Courage of Others



I have recently written a novel about life in England during the Second World War. I felt some concern before I tackled this theme — the War... Continue »
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    La's Orchestra Saves the World

    Alexander McCall Smith

The Great Fire

by Shirley Hazzard

The Great Fire Cover

Awards

Winner of the 2003 National Book Award for Fiction

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

A Great Writer's Sweeping Story of Men and Women Struggling to Reclaim Their Lives in The Aftermath of World Conflict

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 center 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

Review:

"[T]his almost indescribably rich story...moves from strength to strength, and no reader will be unmoved by its sorrowing, soaring eloquence. One of the finest novels ever written about war and its aftermath, and well worth the 23-year wait." Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

Review:

"[Her fans'] thrill over [Hazzard's] new novel will be completed; the long days and nights of waiting will be forgotten....Time and place have always been exactly evoked in Hazzard's fiction, and such is the case here....[B]eautifully atmospheric prose..." Brad Hooper, Booklist

Review:

"I wish there were a set of words like 'brilliant' and 'dazzling' that we saved for only the rarest occasions, so that when I tell you The Great Fire is brilliant and dazzling you would know it is the absolute truth. This is a book that is worth a twenty-year wait." Ann Patchett, author of Bel Canto

Review:

"Shirley Hazzard has written an hypnotic novel that unfolds like a dream: Japan, Southeast Asia, the end of one war and the beginning of another, the colonial order gone, and at the center of it all, a love story." Joan Didion

Review:

"The Great Fire is a brilliant, brave and sublimely-written novel that allows the literate reader 'the consolation of having touched infinity.' This wonderful book, which must be read at least twice simply to savor Hazzard's sentences and set-pieces, is among the most transcendent works I've ever had the pleasure of reading." Anita Shreve, author of The Last Time They Met

Synopsis:

This is Hazzard's first novel since "The Transit of Venus," which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. The conflagration of her title is the Second World War. In war-torn Asia and stricken Europe, men and women must reinvent their lives and expectations, and learn, from their past, to dream again.

Today Show Book Club #16

About the Author

Shirley Hazzard is the author, most recently, of Greene on Capri, a memoir of Graham Greene, and several works of fiction, including The Evening of the Holiday, The Bay of Noon, and The Transit of Venus, winner of the 1981 National Book Critics Circle Award. She lives in

New York City and Capri.

What Our Readers Are Saying

Add a comment for a chance to win!
Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
pathoot, July 20, 2008 (view all comments by pathoot)
The review was perfect. I so loved 'The Great Fire' by Hazzard. It is my favorite book, ever. All other books that I read can't measure up to S. Hazzard. I use her book to judge all others. Thank you for the wonderful review...
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(11 of 14 readers found this comment helpful)

Product Details

ISBN:
9780374166441
Author:
Hazzard, Shirley
Publisher:
Farrar Straus Giroux
Location:
New York
Subject:
General
Subject:
World war, 1939-1945
Subject:
Reconstruction
Subject:
Historical - General
Subject:
England
Subject:
Japan
Subject:
Hong kong
Subject:
Historical fiction
Subject:
Psychological fiction
Subject:
World War, 19
Subject:
General Fiction
Subject:
General Fiction
Copyright:
Edition Number:
1st ed.
Edition Description:
First
Series Volume:
P20-546
Publication Date:
October 2003
Binding:
Hardcover
Language:
English
Pages:
288
Dimensions:
9.30x6.32x.98 in. 1.15 lbs.

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