Novel set in ITALY (1950s glamour and WW2 legacy)
Environmental themed novel set in GREECE
2nd April 2024
The Book of Fire by Christy Lefteri, environmental themed novel set in Greece.
Shortlisted for the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards 2024, Fiction With A Sense of Place.
I have read several books by this author and she always sets her stories against a fully fleshed out backdrop, with a strong sense of place. Here she focuses on an island in Greece where a property speculator set fire to a plot of land, the flames ran out of control and now a blackened landscape is all that remains. Irini and her family – her husband Tasso and young daughter Chara – are picking up the pieces of their lives. The physical burns notwithstanding, the psychological impact has wrought havoc on her little family and community.
Everyone is left to contemplate the charred and burnt countryside that is such a stark contrast to the verdant nature it once was.
“The fire has burnt our souls, our hearts. It has turned to ashes the people we once were…”
In the present, Irini tries to find normality, and the narrative is interspersed with her jottings in a journal that offer perspective not only on her life but on the journey to this particular point in time. Chara adopts an injured jackal, who is tended by the local vet and has fish scales attached to his burnt paws, which helps the healing process (who knew!).
Much of the story is set almost behind a screen of light smoke, which in one way adds authenticity and atmosphere to the terrible events. In another way, though, it is hard to connect with the people, and although objectively I could see what the author was doing, subjectively I just didn’t feel involved. There are incredible descriptions of the harm done to the environment, with a real sense of despondency, as people and nature slowly start to heal. The story has quite a circular trajectory, it revisits many aspects multiple times which adds to the sense that it is hard to move on and that the natural path of life going forward is stymied for the time being.
The idea behind this novel is really very good, but I just got a sense that once the author had grappled with the devastation, she was a little unsure where to ultimately take the unfolding narrative.
This feeling of limbo is reflected in the reading experience but overall this is a worthwhile novel to pick up.
Tina for the TripFiction Team
Connect with the author on TwitterX @christy_lefteri
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