A review by laurajh77
The Fires: A Novel by Sigríður Hagalín Björnsdóttir

3.0

I am fascinated by volcanoes and recently watched a documentary about the fires that have erupted near Reykjavik in recent years. It was so good. So when this came up as an Amazon first read I was delighted! The sections throughout explaining volcanoes and how they form I found very interesting, the love story less so. Anna’s choices didn’t seem to match with her character and intellect, and maybe that was the point. I just didn’t feel it was convincing. The end was shocking and completely different to the majority of the book, which I liked, it added to the confusion and panic, very well done. There were a few points where it felt the translation was a bit clunky - I will admit to not generally liking books translated into English, they lose too much nuance. But this was a good read and worth persevering with the scientific parts.