- Home
- FICTION
- General & Literary Fiction
- Home Fires
You must sign in to add this item to your wishlist. Please sign in or create an account
Description
A stunning portrait of a family bookended by war, Home Fires explores the legacy of loss, the strictures of class, and the long road to redemption.
Max Weston, twenty-one and a newly commissioned lance corporal, leaves home for his first posting in central Africa. Fiercely patriotic and a natural leader, he is eager to make a difference.
He never comes back.
His parents, Caroline and Andrew, are devastated by the death of their only child. Their grief threatens to overwhelm their marriage until the empty space between them is filled by the arrival of Andrew's ninety-eight-year-old mother, Elsa. Always elegant, cutting and critical of Caroline, the old woman is now disabled and disoriented. As she lies in the spare room, the past unspools in Elsa's mind, loosening fragments of her anxious childhood with her mercurial father, who returned from the Great War a changed man.
Under one roof, the Westons come to understand each other in new ways, and the domestic stories of multiple generations coalesce into a potent exploration of the legacies of war and love.
Product details
| Published | Nov 12 2013 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Extent | 256 |
| ISBN | 9781620403556 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury USA |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
About the contributors
Reviews
-
A beautifully crafted novel of love, loss and self-forgiveness.
Kirkus
-
Day captures nuances in the relationships between her well-drawn, fallible characters, focusing on one after the other in nonchronological chapters that constitute a vivid mosaic of grief and aging. A moving family portrait.
Booklist
-
[A] scrupulously written, impeccably structured debut.
The Guardian on Scissors, Paper, Stone
-
A brave and thoughtful book ... As an attempt to analyse the dysfunctional web of relationships within an outwardly normal family, it's a courageous and sensitive story.
The Independent on Scissors, Paper, Stone
-
A moving, terrifyingly real account of how love can be bent out of all recognizable shape.
The Observer on Scissors, Paper, Stone

























