The novel opens in 1947 with its ineffable leading man, Aldred Leith, 32 (picture Gregory Peck) on a train his final destination is the Japanese island of Kure, close to Hiroshima-provocatively close, but very little is made of the greatest fire of the 20th century. Each must scratch around now for some kind of compromise and call it destiny.” The story moves like a strange, sad picaresque, where all adventure has been exhausted, but the old heroes and heroines go through the motions of their now ordinary lives they seem hushed, shell-shocked, loathe to make a sudden move: “Two years into peace and bored to death by it. The unfolding plot, its slow pace and Hazzard’s precise, almost pained, word choice reflect a time far removed from our own: the late 1940s and the aftermath of an inevitable war after the war to end all wars. This is a story of far reaches and big themes: desolation and love, despair and hope, war and peace. Its predecessor, The Transit of Venus, has become a modern classic, and this newest book-so exquisitely written-nearly convinces me that every novel should require 23 years of labor. Shirley Hazzard makes a grand return to the literary stage with The Great Fire, winner of the 2003 National Book Award.
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