The Book of Fire - Christy Lefteri

 Chapter 1 pulls no punches. Straight in for the kill figuratively speaking. In some ways, it was a strange opening. I was so excited to read this book having read the author’s previous two and practically absorbed them intravenously but it took me a chapter or so to really get into it .Frankly, reader, I was scared! I hate that sense of anticipation that isn’t fulfilled. But by the time I reached the end of the book I wanted to read it all over again!

Lefteri garnered much acclaim with her first book, The Beekepper of Aleppo and she followed it up with Songbirds cementing her place as a novelist of note. The Book of Fire does nothing to erode that reputation.

In the wake of the furnace like temperatures in Europe this year the book is piercingly topical. Wild fires are a hazard of many regions in the hotter months but the numbers were exceptional this year. However the premise in this book is a fire started deliberately. It’s never called arson but I guess that’s what it is. And it spreads like…..well….. like wildfire.

And so the story  looks at the event itself, the immediate aftermath and the the adaptation required after the event. It also highlights the strength of the human spirit, how people respond in a disaster and tragedy and the time it takes to recover from the physical and emotional injuries.

It’s a dual narrative with the chapters entitled The Book of Fire being the narrator, Irina’s blow by blow account of her and her daughter’s escape from the fire and their efforts to survive. The other chapters are the present day accounts of dealing with life after the disaster. There is an interesting twist in the story where the perpetrator of the fire is found by Irina in the forest in questionable circumstances that see the police involved. 

For me a slow starter but like many conflagrations the flames spread rapidly and I was overcome with word inhalation. Confident, assured writing that offers the reader a palpable experience. Descriptions so visual you feel that you’re there with Irina, daughter, Chara and husband, Tasso. Characterisations so clearly defined that you want to reach out and soothe. I will confess I was in tears at least a couple of times. 

The world can be a greedy, acquisitive place and that avarice can sometimes have apocalyptic consequences as this book so aptly illustrates. Yet the world is also full of some wonderful people who selflessly give and others whose strength of spirit carries them thought disaster to redemption.

So….. Christy Lefteri has done it again….. given us a book that haunts and moves and asks us to consider our world and our lives. 

Now I can’t believe I struggled to get into it! 

My thanks to Readers First.