A Day of Fire

A Novel of Pompeii

By: Kate Quinn, Stephanie Dray, Ben Kane, Eliza Knight, Sophie Perinot, Vicky Alvear

Narrated by: Andrew Kingston, Saskia Maarleveld

From six bestselling authors, including New York Times bestseller Kate Quinn, comes a vividly imagined novel following the lives of those in ancient Pompeii on the fateful day Mount Vesuvius erupts.

Pompeii was a lively resort flourishing in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius at the height of the Roman Empire. When Vesuvius erupted in an explosion of flame and ash, the entire town would be destroyed. Some of its citizens died in the chaos, some escaped the mountain’s wrath . . . and these are their stories:

A boy loses his innocence in Pompeii’s flourishing streets.

An heiress dreads her wedding day, not knowing it will be swallowed by fire.

An ex-legionary stakes his entire future on a gladiator bout destined never to be finished.

A crippled senator welcomes death, until a tomboy on horseback comes to his rescue.

A young mother faces an impossible choice for her unborn child as the ash falls.

A priestess and a prostitute seek redemption and resurrection as the town is buried.

Six authors bring to life overlapping stories of patricians and slaves, warriors and politicians, villains and heroes who cross each other’s paths during Pompeii’s fiery end. But who will escape, and who will be buried for eternity?

Text copyright 2023 by Stephanie Dray, Ben Kane, Eliza Knight, Sophie Perinot, Kate Quinn, Victoria Alvear, and Michelle Moran

©2023 Kate Quinn, Stephanie Dray, Ben Kane, Eliza Knight, Sophie Perinot, and Vicky Alvear (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers

A collection of novelettes

I enjoyed this book. I love Kate Quinn which is why I listened. About half way through I sort of felt like this was just a collection of short stories. Some better than others. They all ended with death. It is Vesuvius that is the common denominator.

Part 5!

Part 5 was definitely my favorite story. I tugged on my heart strings and it seemed the most realistic.
Some of the other stories were a little boring but in the end I like how everything was connected.

Enjoyed knowing the of the citizens

I liked the variety of characters that included some background on each. The small details about food and dress added depth. Excellent job bringing the characters into one another’s lives.

Not as grim as I feared

Given that the story is about the eruption of the volcano Vesuvius and subsequent burial of the city of Pompei, I wondered somewhat wryly if all the characters would just be killed in one fell swoop. A short book perhaps? But the intertwining stories are engaging and some characters do manage to escape. most important, the characters themselves are drawn with tremendous empathy and I found myself rooting for almost (there were a couple of evil villains) all of them, whether they were lowly, prostitutes or senators. An excellent read!

Loved it

Such amazing stories! Raw stories and brilliant authors. Gonna do the other two books like this next!!

Voices Of Pompeii

This was one of those rare books that grabbed me from word one and never let go. The ingenious narrative device of using the setting of Pompeii in the last days before the cataclysmic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, to tell six disparate and diverse yet nonetheless connected and cohesive stories was an idea ripe with potential that does indeed pay off. The authors (and narrators) do a truly laudable job of breathing life into a city we know is doomed and giving its inhabits a voice that feels both genuine and compelling.
In what is basically an anthology book, six writers each give us a different perspective on the fateful day of Pompeii’s destruction. From the top of Roman society to the very bottom we get an exhaustively researched look at not just a city on the literal brink but at Roman society as a whole. In “A Day Of Fire”, Pompeii itself feels real, tactile, and tangible. It feels lived in and vibrant. It’s a city populated by selfless heroes and vile scum. A city of slaves, gladiators, tribunes, and poets. That authenticity adds a real sense of tragedy to the story when you’re consistently reminded that this was a real place inhabited by real people and the authors never let you forget that. This is most effective when you remember that some of these characters are in fact real people whose names we remember from graffiti and the scant evidence of their existence that’s left to us. To take the lives, names, and stations of real people and try to show readers what their daily lives were really like is an exercise fraught with danger that each author nonetheless manages to pull off. And while some plot points and character arc’s could be a tad formulaic or trite, “A Day Of Fire” is a book that accomplishes everything it sets out to do. Whether you’re a fan of historical fiction, anthology stories, or Roman history, you’ll definitely find something to enjoy in “A Day Of Fire”. This was truly some of the most compelling and immersive historical fiction I’ve ever read and I cannot recommend it enough.

If you enjoyed “A Day Of Fire” as much as I did and are looking for similar titles check out “Ribbons Of Scarlet” by Kate Quinn, “The Wolf Den” by Elodie Harper, “A Thousand Ships” by Natalie Haynes, “Horses of Fire” by A. D. Rhine, or “Fatal Throne: The Wives of Henry VIII Tell All” by M. T. Anderson.

Hot Delivery!

So glad this was made into an audiobook, for the format elevates the great stories contained this book. I love that the stories are intertwined and yet so individually illuminating. I feel as if I experienced this tragedy in so many different ways. Bravo! Excellent narration. ❤️‍🔥

Great Approach to tell this Story

Using the perspective of so many different people made this a very powerful telling of the disaster that happened T Pompeii. Well written and delivered.

Great story...Great Narration

Really great book...if you're at all into historical fiction..you'll like this one. The only thing I didn't care for...and yet I totally understand...is this ending....eh em...endings..

Making catastrophe human

I’ve read & watched many non fiction/ documentaries about Pompeii. And some fiction. This book brought a lot of that together in human stories.