A review by radioisasoundsalvation
Fire in the Blood by Irène Némirovsky

5.0

It was beautiful, and perfectly timed on my part... I was coming off of a rather idyllic high from Q & A, and the somber, cold telling of this novel definitely made me slow down. Don't get me wrong, you'll finish it in a day... I'd even recommend attacking it in one sitting, if you have the chance! Nemirovsky takes a seemingly simple set of French farmers and their families, and lulls you into a tragic unleashing of passions and truths that touches all who have been involved in any form of love affair, however unrequited or short it may have been. The secrets of our narrator Silvio and his family break apart whatever solidity there was at the beginning, and as you read the last chapter, you see how desperate these peoples' lives are. It's bitter, and sharply poetic. More contemplative than Atonement, but you're also more distant from the characters.