Home Fires, Elizabeth Day
Home Fires, Elizabeth Day
List: $27.99 | Sale: $19.59
Club: $13.99

Home Fires

Author: Elizabeth Day

Narrator: Lucy Scott

Unabridged: 9 hr 7 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Fourth Estate

Published: 03/21/2019

Synopsis

A stunning, delicate portrait of a family bookended by war, Home Fires explores the legacy of loss, the strictures of class and the long road to redemption. Max Weston, twenty-one, leaves for his first army posting in central Africa. What happens to him changes the lives of his family forever. At home, his parents struggle to cope. The overwhelming love Caroline has always felt for her only child is now matched by the intensity of Max's absence. The silence is broken by the arrival of Caroline's mother-in-law, Elsa, who at the age of ninety-eight can no longer look after herself. After years of living in fear of putting a foot wrong in front of this elegant, cuttingly courteous lady, finally, Caroline has the upper hand.

About Elizabeth Day

Elizabeth Day is an award-winning author and broadcaster based in the UK. Her chart-topping podcast, How to Fail, is a celebration of the things that haven’t gone right. Guests have included Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Gloria Steinem, Andrew Scott, Lily Allen, Mabel, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Malcolm Gladwell. It won the Rising Star Award at the 2019 British Podcast Awards. Elizabeth is the author of the novel The Party, which was published in the US in 2017.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Sue on October 17, 2013

In a novel that spans the years from the close of World War One to a modern war in The Sudan, we see the effects of battle on one extended British family's life over generations in subtle, but meaningful ways. The story is essentially that of Elsa, a small child when her father returns from the "Gre......more

Goodreads review by Caroline on December 01, 2018

horrendous subject matter sensitively dealt with. It never quite gelled for me though......more

Goodreads review by Leah on April 10, 2013

I'd probably give it 3.5 as it's really well written but in the end a bit slight in terms of plot for me. I read it in one sitting but I wouldn't call it a page-turner.......more

Goodreads review by Hayley on July 22, 2018

3.5 stars Well constructed, not overworked and interesting critique on family life.......more

Goodreads review by Cleopatra on August 21, 2013

Home Fires is the story of two women, Elsa who was born during the First World War and Caroline who is her daughter-in-law. Both women had their lives defined by war. Elsa's father returned to the daughter he didn't know a damaged and brutal man. Caroline's son Max decided to join the army. The story......more

Quotes

‘Elizabeth Day writes with unflinching, responsible honesty; I was inspired and enlightened by the deep humanity of Home Fires’ Sadie Jones ‘Day is an empathetic observer. She is meticulous in teaching and dissecting each sentence her characters experience … The prose is deliberate, precise and bone dry … Elizabeth Day pursues her study of characters attempting to keep the past at bay with a biblical intensity reminiscent of early Anita Brookner and a prose style closer to that of Pat Barker … Home Fires conveys a broader version of life with the claustrophobia of emotional repression’ Eileen Battersby, Irish Times ‘Day has created a compelling study of grief, not least the conflicting ways in which the bereaved may wish to remember the dead … A bold novel, shocking in what it confronts and also in its suggestion that love will, ultimately, survive trauma’ Daily Telegraph ‘Day's great strength is her insight … An elegant, addictive portrayal of a family at war with its past. A beautifully written novel whose quietly discomfiting tone stays with you for a long while afterwards’ Observer ‘Deeply moving’ Woman's Own ‘Very sad and very lovely’ Grazia ‘An elegant meditation … Elizabeth Day's lyrical Home Fires comes highly recommended’ Viv Groskop, Observer Book of the Year

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List