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The Great Fire Audiobook
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(3.01) - 2,015 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
The Great Fire is an extraordinary love story set in the immediate aftermath of the great conflagration of the Second World War. In war-torn Asia and stricken Europe, men and women, still young but veterans of harsh experience, must reinvent their lives and expectations, and learn, from their past, to dream again. Some will fulfill their destinies, others will falter. At the center of the story, a brave and brilliant soldier finds that survival and worldly achievement are not enough. His counterpart, a young girl living in occupied Japan and tending her dying brother, falls in love, and in the process discovers herself. In the looming shadow of world enmities resumed, and of Asia's coming centrality in world affairs, a man and a woman seek to recover self-reliance, balance, and tenderness, struggling to reclaim their humanity.
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"It's weird: I found myself resisting this as I read, while also being annoyed at myself for being so conventional as to have a problem with the age difference between the lovers. But I found myself really being blown away by the amazing sweep of the whole thing, and I thought, damn: this is the kind of smart, epic, historical love story I wish I could pull off some day. And it's really stayed with me, which says a lot, yes?"
— Anne (5 out of 5 stars)
The Great Fire Listener Reviews
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" The writing is a little difficult to understand. Also, I find the spelling of words to seem off, and I am not sure whether it is because they use British spelling or because of editing errors. The book is interesting and I can understand the main ideas. The end of the book is kind of vague in that the story kind of just stops, without really telling us how things get resolved, or even if ever they do get resolved. "
— Seth, 2/20/2014 -
" Absolutely glorious. It also features one of the most lyrical final lines in fiction. Don't read that final line first though, as it gives away too much. "
— Sean, 2/19/2014 -
" As beautiful as the painting that is used to illustrate the cover. Hazzard's writing is mesmerizing, and for that alone she totally deserved her prize. Such writing is pure art, it's literature at its best. The story happens to be as compelling and powerful, in a classic way that brings us back to a certain kind of Anglo-saxon tradition of story-telling. "
— Denis, 2/12/2014 -
" Read for my book group. Dense, at times difficult to follow, beautiful language. "
— Lesley, 2/2/2014 -
" Shirley Hazzard has a lot to teach her readers about writing. There is a compression to her style that belies the depth of meaning, allusion, and storytelling that goes on beneath the surface. It is a small struggle to enter into the world of The Great Fire, but once invested reading becomes an active engagment. "
— Miranda, 1/29/2014 -
" I listened to this on audiobook. I am not sure if I had read it, that I would have had the interest to finish it. "
— Carol, 1/27/2014 -
" This is my favorite novel ever. Which is interesting as many people hated this. But I figure any novel that took 20 years to write is worth the read. It is a master piece on war, love and the damage humans incur from both. "
— Emily, 1/14/2014 -
" A must read novel set in post-WWII. Compelling story with not a word wasted or incorrect. I loved it and found it a page turner. Highly recommended for fiction writers to enjoy the craft and for readers to admire. "
— Julie, 12/24/2013 -
" This is the kind of book that reminds you there's half of an English language that is never used. The writing alone more than lives up to the beauty of the cover. (Sure, no one really talks that way, but that's why we have books, right?) "
— Jamie, 12/15/2013 -
" Really smart book. Great recommendation, Buffy! "
— Abigail, 12/6/2013 -
" Overwritten, yet still somehow weak on both characterization and plot (a novel needs at least one of those!). "
— Alisa, 11/24/2013 -
" I love Shirley Hazzard. This one is set in Japan and New Zealand after World War 2. It's an unlikely love story but a lovely one. "
— Trina, 10/9/2013 -
" Liked this one, too - "
— Aliceanne, 7/5/2013 -
" I was not impressed - Bored Stiff "
— Michael, 9/29/2012 -
" A beautiful book. The best fiction I have read in many years! "
— Karl, 7/3/2012 -
" read half way through and stopped - lost interest. "
— Laurie, 4/9/2012 -
" The book is set in east Asia in 1946-7. The great fire of the title is the atomic bombing of Japan. There is a strong sense of place and time, but I found it slow and lacking in drama. "
— Ann, 2/17/2012 -
" This book is extremely well-written, but it's a bit dense and I found I really had to push myself to finish it. "
— Rachael, 12/15/2011 -
" So romantic in the best way, sweeping across continents, dying empires, familial obstacles, the ashes of war, British country houses, passenger ships, Japanese villages. "
— Lynne, 11/2/2011 -
" Romantic, filled with suspense. Thought it was interesting and worthwhile reading. "
— Lori, 10/26/2011 -
" The prose was exquisite and the story was gripping and oh so romantic. What more do you need? I didn't want this book to end and parts of it are still with me. "
— Margarita, 10/19/2011 -
" Dull, bland, boring..just a few words to describe what I thought of this book. "
— Dajana, 4/14/2011 -
" An astonishing sojourn, I would have edited the final quarter to a degree, but it is an amazing portal. "
— Jonfaith, 4/7/2011 -
" Beautifully written and a good story line. Lots of interesting detail about the time and places. Some complicated and unconventional relationships present challenges to the reader. Left wondering is that OK or not OK? "
— Kris, 3/9/2011 -
" i loved this book. not the easiest read, but I loved it! "
— Shannon, 2/19/2011 -
" Beautiful writing. Hard to get into at first, and dense in the <br/>sense that the sentences are poetic and full of meaning. "
— Marsie, 2/13/2011 -
" Just not scintillating. I don't know if was the book or the reader. "
— Diane, 2/1/2011 -
" I only made it to page 58. I just couldn't get into it. She's a skillful writer and I stand by my belief that Transit of Venus is one of the greatest pieces of modern literature, but this wasn't so great. "
— Lori, 1/19/2011 -
" audiobook, well... the writing is gorgeous, the plot and characters are quite a bore, National Book Award "
— Jennyreadsexcessively, 12/21/2010 -
" I just could not get into this story so I put it down after about 50 pages. "
— Chris, 11/18/2010 -
" Takes a while (about 30 pages) to get into it, but it becomes quite worthwhile. "
— Abigail, 10/29/2010
About Shirley Hazzard
Shirley Hazzard (1931-2016) is the author of novels, nonfiction, and story collections. Her 1970 novel, The Bay of Noon, was shortlisted for the Lost Man Booker Prize in 2010, and The Great Fire won the US National Book Award for Fiction, the Miles Franklin Award, and the William Dean Howells Medal. She also wrote non-fiction, including two books based on her experiences working at the United Nations Secretariat. She was born in Australia, and in early years traveled the world with her parents due to their diplomatic postings. At sixteen, living in Hong Kong, she was engaged by British Intelligence, where, in 1947-48, she was involved in monitoring the civil war in China. Thereafter, she lived in New Zealand and in Europe; in the United States, where she worked for the United Nations Secretariat in New York; and in Italy. In 1963, she married the writer Francis Steegmuller, who died in 1994.
About Virginia Leishman
Virginia Leishman successfully revived The Railway Children and other titles by E. Nesbit. She parses phrases carefully for nuance, and flavors dialogue with personality and spontaneity, as exemplified in her rendition of A. S. Byatt’s Possession. She has earned three AudioFile Earphones Awards.