Synopses & Reviews
His breathing was so slight she could scarcely detect it, even when she lowered her face to his. The smell of him, like new bread, or was it her smell? She could not tell. He and I smell identical, she thought, smiling in the darkness. The barn was softly warm, and the warmth and softness wrapped around mother and child as they curled together in the gloom, breathed together, smelled the same.'Yenko,' Anna whispered in her son's ear.'Your real name is Yenko.'
It is 1927. In the heart of Central Europe, a son is born to Josef, leader of a nomadic group of Coppersmith Gypsies, and his wife, Anna. For the benefit of most people he is named Emil, but his real name, known only to his mother, is Yenko.
Born in a time of peace and prosperity, Yenko grows up during the Great Depression of the 1930s and is then caught up in the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia and in World War II. Soon he and his family are fugitives. . . . Their flight will end in tragedy for some and miraculous escape for others. . . .
From the inter war years through the drama of the Prague uprising of 1945, Fires in the Dark is a breathtaking novel of epic scope. Louise Doughty has created an authentic and compassionate portrayal of Romany life -- and a celebration of a greatly misunderstood culture, told through the story of one family living in an extraordinary time in history.
Review
"Doughty, whose own ancestors were Romany nomads, tells a heartrending tale of individuals struggling against unimaginable horrors, but offers readers a ray of hope at her novel's close." Publishers Weekly
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"Very few Holocaust novels have dealt exclusively with the plight of the European Gypsies during World War II....The vibrant Romany culture springs to life in the pages of this gripping narrative." Margaret Flanagan, Booklist
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"Doughty is a competent narrator, but her characters are dwarfed by the terrible times through which they move." Kirkus Reviews
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"The Nazi persecution of the Roma (Gypsies) during World War II is an aspect of the Holocaust rarely explored in fiction, but Doughty...does just that in her heart-wrenching account." Library Journal
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"Law, religion, language, culture, habit, assumptions and inhibitions bind each of us all too tightly into our own world, but fiction can release us into another. Fires in the Dark does just this." London Times
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"This journey into hell is scarcely bearable, yet made compelling reading by the humanity which it reveals...it delivers inner truth in a knock-out blow, as only art can." The Independent
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"Louise Doughty has made an ambitious departure...she has produced an epic...there's no shortage of drama in this absorbing, shocking and ultimately hopeful novel." Mail on Sunday
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"In an ambitious departure from contemporary themes, Louise Doughty has taken for her subject the mass killing of the Romany tribes under the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia...the compelling story sweeps you along from beginning to end. Doughty writes with a deep knowledge of her subject." Daily Mail (London)
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"Louise Doughty is a fine writer with Gypsy ancestry and her fourth novel is the first of a projected series in which she explores the world of European Gypsies...it is a big, original book with a fascinating perspective on these other Europeans." The Observer
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"Fires in the Dark is memorable and gripping. I have seldom before read sentences that evoke so well the beauty of the landscape or the pain of hunger and cold." New Statesman
Synopsis
This is a sweeping, epic novel set in Prague and the Moravian countryside during World War II about the fate of the gypsies during Hitler's reign.
About the Author
Louise Doughty is the author of three novels -- Crazy Paving, Dance with Me, and Honey-Dew -- and three plays for radio. She has also worked extensively as a journalist and broadcaster. Fires in the Dark, winner of a Writers Award from the Arts Council of Great Britain, where it was published to widespread critical acclaim, is the first in a series of novels based on the history of the Romany people and on the author's own family ancestry.
Reading Group Guide
Fires in the Dark spans 30 years in the life of one gypsy family. We follow the Ruzickas, nomadic farm workers, from the birth of their son Frantisek in the Moravian countryside, just as Hitler's grip of terror begins to reach outside of Germany. Similar to the plight of the Jews, albeit in a much smaller way, the gypsies were forced to take part in a census so that all could be accounted for, and eventually erased.
This novel is Frantisek's story. His roadside birth coincides with the census and before long, his family and their tribe are shipped to an all-gypsy labor camp where he watches his aunt, his father, his brother, and sister die from starvation, illness, and the German atrocities. It is also the story of his escape from the camp...his life in Prague working as a thief, and the courage it takes for him to return to the camp to try and save his family.
Topics for Discussion
1. How aware do you think the world at large is of the life and plight of the gypsies before, during and after World War II?
2. How did the book change any prejudices you might have had about the Gypsy people or life in central Europe until now?
3. How does Emil's story of survival add onto what you already know about children's Holocaust experiences from such books as Night by Elie Wiesel and Anne Frank's diary or movies such as Schindler's List, Life is Beautiful, and Empire of the Sun?
4. At one point Anna thinks that it would be better to die than to experience the heartbreak of having a child during the Holocaust and then losing him. How do you think women like Anna were able to handle this kind of emotional turmoil?