THE BOOK OF FIRE

A family in a Greek village struggles to recover after an enormous wildfire.

This novel revolves around a massive fire that incinerates hundreds of thousands of acres in rural Greece, forcing many residents to run into the sea to escape. Its narrator, Irini, is a musician; her husband, Tasso, is an artist; and they have a precocious young daughter, Chara. Before the fire their life was idyllic, but afterward they’re deeply traumatized—they have lost their home, Tasso’s father is missing, and Tasso and Chara have serious burns. Chapters narrated in the first person tell the family’s story several months after the fire; other chapters told in the third person are an account Irini is writing of the disaster itself, including the desperate hours she and Chara spent in the water, awaiting rescue and not knowing whether Tasso survived. In the story’s present day, the narrator goes for a walk through the ruined forest with her dog and finds a dying man, who turns out to be the developer who “stole the world” when he set what he intended as a small fire to clear land for a resort. The manner of his death adds a mystery element to the plot and leaves the narrator questioning herself as she battles to hold her family together. The novel’s strengths include its terrifying descriptions of the fire and its explanation of how drought brought about by climate change contributed to the blaze’s ferocity. But the book is marred by some improbable events, one-dimensional characters, and often stilted dialogue—long passages sound far more like lectures than conversation.

A sometimes compelling story of disaster is diluted by unrealistic details.