The Great Fire
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Virginia Leishman
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By:
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Shirley Hazzard
About this listen
National Book Award, Fiction, 2003
This mesmerizing, poetic novel has earned universal acclaim. Set against the beautiful but tragic landscape of post-World War II Asia, The Great Fire tells a sweeping tale of the search for new beginnings in a world ravaged by tragedy.Thirty-two-year-old war hero Aldred Leith is in Japan to survey the Hiroshima devastation. His close friend and fellow veteran Peter Exley prosecutes Japanese war criminals in Hong Kong. Striving to rebuild lives shattered by war, both men reach critical turning points. Leith falls in love with a precocious and charming 17-year-old girl, while Exley faces a decision that will forever alter his path.
Author Shirley Hazzard's first novel in more than 20 years, The Great Fire is an elegant and beautifully crafted story that resonates long past the final word.
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Critic reviews
"What blows away all cobwebs is the extraordinary quality of the writing, gravely beautiful and utterly attentive...[a] marvelous book." (The Observer)
"Hazzard combines emotion on a scale we associate with 19th century novels with language that has the freedom and lucid precision of early 20th century modernism." (Salon.com)
"The purity of her sentences, each one resonant with implication, create an effortless flow. This is a quiet book, but one that carries portents well beyond its time and place, suggesting the disquieting state of our current world." (Publishers Weekly)
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Ralph and Anna Eldred are an exemplary couple, devoting themselves to doing good. 30 years ago as missionaries in Africa, the worst that could happen did. Shattered by their encounter with inexplicable evil, they returned to England, never to speak of it again. But when Ralph falls into an affair, Anna finds no forgiveness in her heart, and 30 years of repressed rage and grief explode, destroying not only a marriage but also their love, their faith, and everything they thought they were.
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Beautifully written
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It is the story of a boy growing up in the war-torn Jerusalem of the 40s and 50s in a small apartment crowded with books in 12 languages and relatives speaking nearly as many. His mother and father, both wonderful people, were ill-suited to each other. When Oz was 12 and a half years old, his mother committed suicide - a tragedy that was to change his life. He leaves the constraints of the family and the community of dreamers, scholars, and failed businessmen to join a kibbutz.
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His life was interesting, but not his memoir
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From the Man Booker Prize-nominated author of Sleeping on Jupiter, The Folded Earth, and An Atlas of Impossible Longing, a poignant and sweeping novel set in India during World War II and the present day about a son’s quest to uncover the truth about his mother....
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Beautiful book
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John Fowles’s The Magus was a literary landmark of the 1960s. Nicholas Urfe goes to a Greek island to teach at a private school and becomes enmeshed in curious happenings at the home of a mysterious Greek recluse, Maurice Conchis. Are these events, involving attractive young English sisters, just psychological games, or an elaborate joke, or more? Reality shifts as the story unfolds. The Magus reflected the issues of the 1960s perfectly, and it continues to create tension and concern today.
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One of the best novels that I really think I hate.
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After four years as a military nurse, Charlotte Brown is ready to leave behind the devastation of the Great War. The daughter of a vicar, she has always been determined to dedicate her life to helping others. Moving to busy Liverpool, she throws herself into her work with those most in need, only tearing herself away for the lively dinners she enjoys with the women at her boardinghouse.
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More romance than history
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The Unsettled Dust
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Robert Aickman, the supreme master of the supernatural, brings together eight stories in which strange things happen that the reader is unable to predict. His characters are often lonely and middle-aged, but all have the same thing in common: they are brought to the brink of an abyss that shows how terrifyingly fragile our piece of mind actually is. 'The Unsettled Dust', 'The House of the Russians', 'No Stronger Than a Flower', 'The Cicerones' and 'Ravissante' first appeared in the Sub Rosa collection in 1968, but the stories were published together as The Unsettled Dust in 1990.
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Perfectly read, sheds new light on this work
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Silver Wattle
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In fear for their lives after the sudden death of their mother, Adéla and Klára must flee Prague to find refuge with their uncle in Australia. Later, Adéla becomes a film director at a time when the local industry is starting to feel the competition from Hollywood. But even while success is imminent, the issues of family and an impossible love are never far away.
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Groan, Snore and Wince!
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The Postcard
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2002, Australia. When Melissa discovers a postcard addressed to 'Desmond' among her recently deceased father's effects, she is determined to discover this person's identity and his relationship to her father. She soon embarks on a journey that will take her across oceans and into the past...
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Meh
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Tusker and Lily Smalley stayed on in India. Given the chance to return ‘home’ when Tusker, once a Colonel in the British Army, retired, they chose instead to remain in the small hill town of Pankot, with its eccentric inhabitants and archaic rituals left over from the days of the Empire. Only the tyranny of their imposing landlady threatens to upset the quiet rhythm of their days.
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A Pleasant Meander
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Clara Callan
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Two sisters, small-town Ontario, 1934. Canadian author Richard Wright tells their story, from the ordinary to the extraoridinary with an eye for the commonplace and poignant sense of the larger undercurrents that change people's lives.
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charming intimate refreshing
- By L on 09-10-04
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What listeners say about The Great Fire
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- John
- 06-10-07
A great book
Very well written, good plot, great characterization, this is one I'll come back to read again in the future.
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- Justin Tanner
- 12-17-20
A Masterpiece
Quite simply, the loveliest most profound, most gorgeously written book I’ve read in quite some time. Shirley Hazzard’s prose is as good as it gets. Heartbreaking and marvelous.
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- urbanguy
- 09-05-23
lovely writing, evocative descriptions
though initially I thought this book would be slow going, I was ultimately moved by hazzard's richly detailed and thoughtful insights into human behaviors, both large and small. perhaps not everyone's cup of tea, but for me it was a pleasure. note: I am surprised that there is no audio book for hazzard's best known work, the transit of Venus
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- Georgine
- 03-09-04
what war does
How does one recover from the horrors of war and cope with the sense of loss and change both in oneself, in others and in the world in the aftermath is the difficult theme that this book tackles so well. It's a challenging book emotionally and an extraordinary chronicle of the social changes that the war had especially for England--the loss of the empire and the breakdown of the class system. But it's also a book about people and the various ways in which some suceeded and some failed in trying to get back to their lives. It's beautifully written--has the feeling of being from another era and yet it's not too hard to see that it speaks to the present as well. Patience is rewarded with this one.
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16 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Daniel
- 12-18-05
A high-class romance novel
The "Great Fire" is a high-class romance novel that contains a mixture of historical fiction, psychological portraiture, political commentary on WWII and its aftermath (particularly in east Asia, but also with some focus on England & Australia & New Zealand). It should appeal to those who enjoy traditional romance novels, but also to readers who prefer historical fiction & literature, with some romance thrown in to drive the action
All of the principal characters might be considered as members of the walking wounded. Wounded by upbringing, wounded by war. All are seeking a way out of their wounds by helping others, in official capacities (bomb survey, postwar trials, nursing relatives) and in their personal lives. Out of this the central & surprisingly believable love story between decorated war veteran of 32, and an 18 year-old girl, much older than her years in some respects & an 18 year-old in others, emerges.
The author has a hypnotic writing style that brings the reader into the frame ... understanding the motivations of the characters & their environment without much third-party explication. This is what gives the book so much power. You are drawn into the frame & truly want to know the outcomes for each of the characters in turn. One of those books where you hope to have a sequel, to see how things turned out but, in reality, it is better to let your own imagination work those turns without an author's assistance.
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10 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Rebecca
- 10-07-05
Literary and lyrical
I agree that this book is better read on paper than listened to, because there is so much interior reflection on the part of the characters without much warning about the transitions. But what lovely and elegant writing! It captures an era that most of us never knew.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Carol Mannchen
- 10-05-05
The Great Fire -- A Wonderful Listen
I certainly disagree with the other raters. I found the voice of this listen gentle and appropriate. The scenes were so well drawn, ala Proust, that I could picture both Japan and Hong Kong. I found the characters for the most part likeable. Remembering that Aldred was 32 and Helen 18, older than he thought at first, I never imagined him a pedophile. This is a lovely listen.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Leah
- 09-04-20
Pretentious, offensive and overwritten
This is the love story of a 32 year old British war hero, an upper class highly educated man of the world
, and a 16/17 year old girl he meets in Japan whom he refers to with friends as “the changeling.” One never really is given to understand the basis of the attraction on his part, except for lust. On her part she’s a young, inexperienced child wanting to get away from her cruel parents. There are reasons that sex with underage people is illegal, but this factor never seems to be acknowledged in the book. If you don’t find this offensive, you might like this book. That is, if you can get past the ridiculously pretentious, oh so literate writing style. The reader is average, and apparently unwilling or unable to approximate the Australian and American accents called for. Occasionally one doesn’t know who is talking. I did finish the book, but its overwrought style had me chuckling in various places that weren’t supposed to be funny.
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1 person found this helpful
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- David Harrison Dave
- 02-02-23
Good
Good book. Would have enjoyed more history and cultural context. Mostly interesting love story balanced be men reconciling war and women waiting.
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- Zu-Zu
- 10-05-18
Brilliant
The author rewards the efforts of the reader with quiet memorable images and a surge of emotion in the powerful ending.
For me, both the exquisitely performed audible version and ultimately the text were required so that I could more easily mark and quickly reread favorite passages and emerging themes. Like an impressionist painting, The Great Fire needs inspection from a distance and from very close (to appreciate the loving brush strokes).
I had trouble reading Transit of Venus, but I might try that book again under different conditions where I could devote more attention.
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2 people found this helpful