📚 Book Club Book Review 📚
Title: The Book of Fire
Author: Christy Lefteri
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Genre: Literary Fiction
Somber. Poetic. Lyrical. Nods to climate change and greek mythology. Right vs. Wrong. Heartbreaking. Healing.
For a book just over 300 pages, this one had a lot of themes being explored, but each one was executed to perfection. Author Christy Lefteri found a way to take a somber subject of wildfires, even those started on purpose, and write it in such a beautiful way. That’s quite an achievement. She wrote this book in such a unique way with some chapters in the present day and others being told by main character, Irina, though a book she was writing to recount the day of the fire.
“There is something about stories that allows us to process the present.”
Irina, her husband Tasso, and their daughter Chara all live deep in an ancient forest in Greece. They are a soulful, artistic family with Irina teaching music and reading to children, Tasso painting the beautiful forest they live in, and Chara likes to draw. Their lives are forever changes when a wildfire sweeps through the forest destroying everything. That’s not everything they lose, Tasso loses his father and severely burns his hands; he struggles to cope with all of these things.
“This fire was like a demon, the way it moved, the way it lit up across the land, the way it charged down the mountain, swallowing up whatever and whoever stood in its way. Why was it different this time?”
Months later when they are trying to rebuild their lives and begin healing, Irina finds the man who started the fire while out walking her dog on a path of what’s left of the forest. She realizes he is dying and leaves him in a haste of anger instead of helping him. As the police investigate, this split-second decision begins to haunt her.
“To move on we must—must—put certain things to rest.”
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 I just can’t get over how beautiful the writing is in this book. This book is truly a reminder about how fragile life can be. I really liked all the characters in this one. Some flaws, but felt true to life. Good pacing. Highly recommend; especially for literacy fiction fans.
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