Tag: literary fiction

Book Review: Fires by Tom Ward

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Fires CoverAbout the Book

There’s a fire on the horizon.

For Guy, a fireman, it means the death of his wife and daughter. For 19-year-old Nathan and Alexa it means a chance to fight back against austerity and abandonment. While the teenagers turn to arson, Guy searches for meaning behind his family’s deaths, battling corruption and a lost underclass, intent on fiery revolution.

For all three, their actions will lead them to the precipice of disaster.

Format: eBook,  paperback (263 pp.)   Publisher: Crooked Cat Books
Published: 2nd November 2017              Genre: Fiction

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk ǀ Amazon.com
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

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My Review

From its dramatic and shocking first chapter, I was drawn into the story related in Fires, which is both thriller and exploration of the consequences of disaffection and social inequality.

The What Cathy Read Next intertextual radar is always on standby and the fact that the main character in Fires is called Guy and is a fireman naturally made me think of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 whose protagonist is Guy Montag. Indeed, in Fires, Guy’s wife, Eve, remarks “You reek of smoke…It’s coming from inside of you” echoing the scene in Fahrenheit 451 where Guy Montag is recognised because he smells of kerosene.

In Fahrenheit 451 the role of fireman is subverted to be a starter of fires not a quencher of them but its famous opening line “It was a pleasure to burn” very neatly sums up the excitement and feeling of power experienced by Nathan and his arsonist friends in Fires’ other story line. In every other respect, they are powerless.  Unemployment, the threat of unemployment, poor housing and low wages has created disaffection and anger.  For Nathan, fire is an obsession, a means to strike back and an energising force that contrasts with what he sees as his dead-end life.

‘Raging in its glory, the fire captivated him. Here was life, movement, a spark of energy rippling through the flat night air. Rubbing his thumb back and forth over the cold metal lighter, Nathan pictured the whole city burning, raised to the ground by an underclass of the discontented, waiting for a chance to take their lives into their own hands, dark figures rising in the night to mark their claim on the city.’

The industrial landscape described in the novel is clearly contemporary but at times has a post-apocalyptic feel to it with its abandoned community buildings, boarded up houses and deserted retail parks.  I felt the author was particularly good at capturing the atmosphere of the rundown areas of the city.

‘The light in the greasy cafe on the edge of the estate was dim and every surface was sticky, retaining the memory of distant meals. The clientele was mainly old men in dark Harringtons and bomber jackets, sipping cups of tea as they stared out of dusty windows.’

‘The hotel stood alone and abandoned on the main road into the city…Its four stories of windows had once been boarded up but the rain had long since rotted the wood and now the windows stared out over the empty dual carriageway, awaiting guests that were never coming.’

Presiding over everything is the huge steelworks that is the main source of employment in the city.

‘As the first stars bloomed then faded in the approach of night, Nathan turned towards the steelworks with the black curve of the river behind it. He watched the chimneys belching balls of flame and the orange glare of the blast furnaces.’

In Fires, power and money corrupt and those who possess power will go to great lengths to protect it. It is down to individuals, like Guy, to stand up to them, to reveal the truth and mete out justice. Fires is both compelling thriller and powerful indictment of the consequences of disaffection and deprivation within our society.

I received an advance reader copy courtesy of the author in return for an honest and unbiased review.

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In three words: Dramatic, thought-provoking, powerful

Try something similar…Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

TomWardAbout the Author

Tom Ward is an author and freelance journalist. He has written for Esquire, Men’s Health, GQ, the Guardian and more, and won the PPA New Consumer Magazine Journalist of the Year Award 2017. He is also the recipient of the GQ Norman Mailer Award 2012. His first novel, A Departure, was shortlisted for the People’s Book Prize and the Beryl Bainbridge Award. His short story collection, Dead Dogs And Splintered Hearts is available now. His second novel, Fires, will be released on November 2nd, 2017. Tom has been described as ‘Quite possibly the best young writer in the country’ by best-selling author Tony Parsons. Tom lives in London.

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Blog Tour: 13 Reasons Why I Loved Home Is Nearby by Magdalena McGuire

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Home Is Nearby blog tour banner

I’m thrilled to host today’s stop on the blog tour for Home Is Nearby, the debut novel by Magdalena McGuire, which is published on 1st November 2017.   Rather than write a standard review, I thought I’d channel just a little bit of the creativity at the heart of Home Is Nearby and give you thirteen reasons to read this thought-provoking and fascinating book.

My thanks to Natalie at Impress Books for the advance proof copy and the invitation to join the blog tour.

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HomeisNearby1About the Book

1980: The beginning of the polish crisis. Brought up in a small village, country-girl Ania arrives in the university city of Wroclaw to pursue her career as a sculptor. Here she falls in love with Dominik, an enigmatic write at the centre of a group of bohemians and avant-garde artists who throw wild parties. When martial law is declared, their lives change overnight: military tanks appear on the street, curfews are introduced and the artists are driven underground. Together, Ania and Dominik fight back, pushing against the boundaries imposed by the authoritarian communist government. But at what cost?

Format: Paperback , eBook (320 pp.)    Publisher: Impress Books
Published: 1st November 2017                Genre: Literary Fiction

Pre-order/Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find Home is Nearby on Goodreads

13 Reasons Why I Loved Home is Nearby

1) Our narrator, Ania: her relationship with her father, her courage, her determination to be true to herself, her commitment to her art and the gradual awakening of her creativity as she is exposed to the contemporary art scene

‘The tin can sculpture, the cubes, Malgorzata’s photos – these were far from traditional. And yet here they were displayed in a gallery. I was beginning to see that being an artist didn’t mean I had to copy the masters. What I did have to do was create something that belonged to me – something that no one else could make.’

2) Ania’s father: his tender, unselfish support of Ania’s desire to be an artist, his sacrifices and his unconditional love

3) Learning about the economic situation in Poland in the 1980s – food shortages (using teabags multiple times, drinking water before eating to feel fuller), waiting lists for a telephone line or an apartment (unless you could afford a bribe or to call in a favour)

4) Learning about the political background and the Polish state’s attempts to stifle the rise of the Solidarity movement: censorship, internment, surveillance, informers and control of the press. Was this really happening as recently as the 1980s?

5) The defiance of the Polish people both explicit (student protests, graffiti) and implicit (carrying on with traditional Christmas preparations)

‘Every time the militiamen painted over the graffiti, it appeared again the next day. With new slogans, bigger writing. It was an ongoing battle between us and them: slogan, silence, slogan.’

6) The way the author brings to life the process of creating art from initial inspiration, through manufacture to completion.

‘The professor was right. Metal was a masculine material, the stuff of guns and tanks. If I was going to work with it I had to find a way to use it slyly, with a wink in the other direction. Take the notion of hardness and turn it on its head.’

7) Examining the question that Ania wrestles with – is art enough? ‘What good was a picture when people were suffering?’ ‘What good was sculpture at a time like this? Unlike Dominik’s writing, it couldn’t change the world.’ Ania’s gradual realisation that art can be an act of defiance as well.

8) The evocative picture of rural Poland and the constrast between life there and in the city. As Dominik says: ‘I’d forgotten what the rural parts of Poland were like.’

9) The moral dilemmas facing Ania and others protesting against the system and the anguish and consequences that follow from their decisions

10) The insight into Polish customs, culture, food and drink (carp, cabbage parcels, cherry compote)

11) How contemporary events and culture in the rest of the world are woven in – the rise of punk rock, Ronald Reagan, Hollywood films.

12) That Ania’s final piece neatly alludes to the author’s own act of creativity.

13) The gorgeous cover

MagdalenaMcGuireAbout the Author

Magdalena is an award-winning writer who was born in Poland, grew up in Darwin and now lives in Melbourne with her husband and son. Her short stories have been published by The Big Issue, Mslexia, Margaret River Press and The Bristol Prize. She won the 2017Mslexia Women’s Short Story Competition with ‘Salt Madonna’. She has published widely on human rights topics, including women’s rights and the rights of people with disabilities. She is an avid reader and particularly enjoys reading books about girls who like reading books. Home is Nearby is her debut novel.

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