The Stars are Fire

‘Shreve is a literary talent for all, and this novel - up there with her award-winning The Weight of Water - is flaming good.’ - The Times

1947. Fires are racing along the coast of Maine after a summer-long drought, ravaging thousands of acres, causing unprecedented confusion and fear.

Five months pregnant, Grace Holland is left alone to protect her two toddlers when her difficult and unpredictable husband Gene joins the volunteers fighting to bring the fire under control. Along with her best friend, Rosie, and Rosie's two young children, the women watch in horror as their houses go up in flames, spending the night frantically trying to save their children. When dawn comes, they have miraculously survived, but their lives are forever changed: homeless, penniless, and left to face an uncertain future.

As Grace awaits news of her husband's fate, she is thrust into a new world in which she must make a life on her own, beginning with absolutely nothing; she must find work, a home, a way to provide for her children.

In the midst of devastating loss, Grace discovers glorious new freedoms - joys and triumphs she could never have expected her narrow life with Gene could contain - and her spirit soars. And then the unthinkable happens, and Grace's bravery is tested as never before.

In what would tragically be her final novel, in The Stars are Fire Anita Shreve delivers a virtuoso drama that sweeps in both the devastation of loss and the strange fortitudes tragedy can bring. Brilliant in unveiling its revelations and uncannily true in its observation, Shreve’s last work only underlines fiction’s loss of a profound storyteller.