100,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock πŸ‡³πŸ‡Ώ

Overnight NZ-wide delivery on in-stock orders πŸš€

The Great Fire

3.48 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating.
( 5,675 ratings, 756 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard unfolds in the aftermath of the Second World War, weaving together the lives of young men and women across war-torn Asia and Europe. At its core is a brave soldier confronting the emptiness of survival and worldly success, and a young girl in Occupied Japan who, through caring for her dying brother and finding love, embarks on a journey of self-discovery. Against the backdrop of renewed global tensions and Asia's emerging prominence, they strive to reclaim humanity, balance, and tenderness.
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$2999
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 4-6 weeks

Found a better price? Request a price match

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This novel is ideal for readers who appreciate literary and historical fiction that offers rich character development, emotional depth, and reflections on war, love, and resilience in a global context.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

The sweeping story of men and women struggling to reclaim their lives in the aftermath of world conflict by 'one of the greatest writers working in English today' (Michael Cunningham) and Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction.

* National press colour ad campaign: SUNDAY TIMES; DAILY TELEGRAPH; INDEPENDENT; GUARDIAN (full pages in Review 22 and 29 May) * Review coverage across the national press * Reading copies available *One of Virago's submissions for The Man Booker Prize * On-line activity (visit www.virago.co.uk)

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

The Great Fire is Shirley Hazzard's first novel since The Transit of Venus, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1981. The conflagration of her title is the Second World War.

In war-torn Asia and stricken Europe, men and women, still young but veterans of harsh experience, must reinvent their lives and expectations, and learn, from their past, to dream again. Some will fulfil their destinies, others will falter.

At the centre of the story, a brave and brilliant soldier finds that survival and worldly achievement are not enough. His counterpart, a young girl living in Occupied Japan and tending her dying brother, falls in love, and in the process discovers herself.

In the looming shadow of world enmities resumed, and of Asia's coming centrality in world affairs, a man and a woman seek to recover self-reliance, balance, and tenderness, struggling to reclaim their humanity.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Critically acclaimed for its profound exploration of love and goodness, The Great Fire has been described as "brilliant and dazzling" and a "hypnotic novel that unfolds like a dream." Renowned authors and critics praise Shirley Hazzard as one of the greatest living writers, highlighting the emotional depth and lyrical beauty of her storytelling which deeply moves readers.

Book Hero reading reviews

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781844080571

Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 06 May 2004

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Virago Press Ltd

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 21.0mm

Width: 127.0mm

Height: 195.0mm

Weight: 220g

Pages: 320

About the Author

Shirley Hazzard is the author of Greene on Capri, a memoir of Graham Greene, and several works of fiction, including The Evening of The Holiday, The Bay of Noon, and The Transit of Venus, winner of the 1981 National Book Critics Circle Award. She lives in New York City and Capri.

Also by Shirley Hazzard

View all
  • The Bay Of Noon
    The scene is Naples, against whose ancient and fantastic background the modern action takes place. Among the protagonists is Jenny, young and pretty, who has come to Naples in flight from a sombre drama, unaware that a larger drama awaits her there. She has an introduction to a Neapolitan woman, and one day she idly follows it up. This is...
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3099
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Collected Stories of Shirley Hazzard
    Collected Stories includes both volumes of National Book Award-winning author Shirley Hazzard's short story collections - Cliffs of Fall and People in Glass Houses - alongside uncollected works and two previously unpublished stories. Twenty-eight works of short fiction in all, Shirley Hazzard's Collected Stories is a work of staggering breadth and talent. Taken together, Hazzard's short stories are masterworks in...
    Paperback
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Ancient Shore – Dispatches from Naples
    Born in Australia, Shirley Hazzard first moved to Naples as a young woman in the 1950s to take up a job with the United Nations. It was the beginning of a long love affair with the city. The Ancient Shore collects the best of Hazzard’s writings on Naples, along with a classic New Yorker essay by her late husband, Francis...
    Paperback
    $3099
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • Expatriates of No Country
    For more than thirty years, the acclaimed novelist Shirley Hazzard and the renowned scholar of Japanese literature Donald Keene maintained a remarkable epistolary friendship. Brought together by the death of a mutual friend in the late 1970s, they discovered a profound connection built on mutual affinities for literature and culture and common values of humanism and cosmopolitanism. Expatriates of No...
    Paperback
    $4199
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • We Need Silence to Find Out What We Think
    Spanning the 1960s to the 2000s, these nonfiction writings showcase Shirley Hazzard's extensive thinking on global politics, international relations, the history and fraught present of Western literary culture, and postwar life in Europe and Asia. They add essential clarity to the themes that dominate her award-winning fiction and expand the intellectual registers in which her writings work. Hazzard writes about...
    Paperback
    $9200
    Available
    Ships in 2-3 weeks
  • Greene On Capri
    For millennia, the cliffs of Capri have sheltered pleasure-seekers and refugees alike, among them the emperors Augustus and Tiberius, Henry James, Rilke, Lenin, and hosts of artists, eccentrics, and outcasts. It was here in the 1960s that Graham Greene became friends with Shirley Hazzard and her husband, the writer Francis Steegmuller, and their friendship lasted until Greene's death in 1991....
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • The Transit Of Venus
    The Transit of Venus tells the story of Caro, gallant and adventurous, who is one of two Australian sisters that have come to post-war England to seek their fortunes. Courted long and hopelessly by young scientist Ted Tice, Caro finds that love brings passion, sorrow, betrayal, and finally hope. The milder Grace seeks fulfilment in an apparently happy marriage. Yet,...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • The Transit of Venus
    'One of the great English-language novels of the twentieth century' PARIS REVIEW'The Transit of Venus is astronomical: as sharp, remote and dazzling as a celestial body' LAUREN GROFF'A wonderfully mysterious book . . . unforgettably rich' ANNE TYLER'Epic and microscopic . . . stitched in prose of gorgeously sustained intensity' GEOFF DYERThe tragedy is not that love doesn't last. The...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • The Collected Stories of Shirley Hazzard
    The Collected Stories includes both volumes of National Book Award-winning author Shirley Hazzard's short story collections β€” Cliffs of Fall and People in Glass Houses β€” alongside uncollected works and two previously unpublished stories. With twenty-eight works of short fiction in all, Shirley Hazzard's Collected Stories is a work of staggering breadth and talent. Taken together, Hazzard's short stories are...
    Paperback
    Sold Out

More from Historical Fiction

View all
  • New Release
    The Parisian Chapter
    From the New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Library and The Librarians of Rue de Picardie comes a charming and cinematic novel following a young woman from Montana who lands a job in the American Library in Paris, where she discovers the power of storytelling and writes her own Parisian chapter.'Stirring and rich with detail' New York Times...
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3499
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    Inferno
    AD 60. Nero Claudius Caesar is Emperor. He is feared for his temper. He is known to be intoxicated by the power he wields. And why not? The Roman Empire stretches from the wilds of Britain to the deserts of Parthia. Nero is god of all he surveys. Yet dangerous traitors lie close at hand. Generals commanding legions. Senators whispering...
    Paperback
    $3100
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Circle of Days
    From the master of epic fiction comes the deeply human story of one of the world's greatest mysteries: the building of Stonehenge. A FLINT MINER WITH A GIFT Seft, a talented flint miner, walks the Great Plain in the high summer heat, to witness the rituals that signal the start of a new year. He is there to trade his...
    Hardback
    $4499
    Elsewhere:
    $6000
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Soldier's Daughter
    The heart-stopping new blockbuster by the bestselling author of The Fallen Woman. Violet Nash has grown up in the shadows of her father Charlie's shattered dreams. It's been years since he walked away from the battlefields of France, a WWI hero but his heart in tatters, only to see it broken all over again in the worst way possible. In...
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Girl with the Suitcase
    The enthralling new novel from the 10-million-copy, No. 1 bestselling author. London 1941 When Mary meets a glamorous stranger named Elizabeth, she realises their lives couldn't be more different. But when an air raid forces them to take shelter underground, Mary's life is set to change forever. After waking up in hospital, injured but alive, the nurse mistakes her for...
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Lost Bookshop
    Evie Woods' stunning new novel The Story Collector is available now. The Echo of Old Books meets The Lost Apothecary in this evocative and charming novel full of mystery and secrets. β€˜The thing about books,’ she said β€˜is that they help you to imagine a life bigger and better than you could ever dream of.’ On a quiet street in...
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $2500
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • All the Diamonds in Paris
    Kristin Harmel is firmly in the top echelon of WW2 storytellers - HEATHER MORRIS A master storyteller - SANTA MONTEFIORE The best at sweeping historical drama - KELLY HARMS A dazzling diamond of a novel - HAZEL GAYNOR * Paris, 1942: Anabel Martinet is a jewel thief, descended from a family that has spent centuries stealing from the unkind and...
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Listeners
    β€˜By turns a beautiful love story, a fascinating glimpse into the horrors of history and a haunting tale of loyalty and courage. A marvel of storytelling’ CHRIS WHITAKER, bestselling author of All the Colours of the Dark The Avallon Hotel offers unrivalled luxury in the wild Appalachian Mountains, its curative sweetwater washing away the troubles of high society. June 'Hoss'...
    Paperback
    $3600
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Song of Achilles
    The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller is a brilliantly crafted retelling of the ancient Greek epic of Achilles and Patroclus, transforming the classical myth into a profoundly moving love story. Set against the richly depicted backdrop of Greece during the heroically tumultuous age, the narrative follows Patroclus, an awkward and exiled young prince, who is taken to the court...
    Paperback
    $2100
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    (3)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Cardinal
    Step into the thrill and intrigue of Tudor England in the rich, compelling new novel from Sunday Times bestseller Alison Weir. Alison Weir makes history come alive as no one else BARBARA ERSKINE AN EXTRAORDINARY RISE TO POWER. A TRAGIC FALL FROM GRACE. It begins with young Tom Wolsey, the bright and brilliant son of a Suffolk tradesman, sent to...
    Paperback
    $3400
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Mythos
    Mythos by Stephen Fry is a compelling retelling of the classic Greek myths, reimagined with a wit and elegance that only Fry can deliver. This volume transports the reader to a world where mortals intertwine with the divine, and the timeless tales unfold in a spellbinding narrative that captures the imagination. From the cosmogonyβ€”the birth of the cosmosβ€”to the exploits...
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $3000
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • On Sale
    15% off
    The Four Winds
    Kristin Hannah is a classic storyteller and The Four Winds sees her at the top of her game - Matt Haig Powerful and compelling - Delia Owens, number one international bestselling author of Where the Crawdads Sing A story of love, family, unbreakable bonds, bravery and hope. I loved this book so much! - Christy Lefteri, bestselling author of The...
    Paperback
    $1700
    Elsewhere:
    $2499
    In Stock
    Ships today

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.