The Stars are Fire

Author: Anita Shreve
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2017
Pages: 256
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: In October 1947, after a summer long drought, fires break out all along the Maine coast from Bar Harbor to Kittery and are soon racing out of control from town to village. Five months pregnant, Grace Holland is left alone to protect her two toddlers when her husband, Gene, joins the volunteer firefighters. Along with her best friend, Rosie, and Rosie's two young children, Grace watches helplessly as their houses burn to the ground, the flames finally forcing them all into the ocean as a last resort. The women spend the night frantically protecting their children, and in the morning find their lives forever changed: homeless, penniless, awaiting news of their husbands' fate, and left to face an uncertain future in a town that no longer exists. In the midst of this devastating loss, Grace discovers glorious new freedoms—joys and triumphs she could never have expected her narrow life with Gene could contain—and her spirit soars. And then the unthinkable happens—and Grace's bravery is tested as never before.

Review: My first Anita Shreve novel, and I loved it. From the first page I was hooked. So much about the synopsis appealed to me. Maine, 1947, a conflagration, a woman with two small children forced to make it on her own, a mystery about what happened to her husband. . .the plot as a whole intrigued me.

I'm not one to find editing mistakes in a novel, but at one point Grace is called Claire. The author also states in one chapter that Grace had no money, but in another Grace wonders how much money is in her purse. Nothing had happened in the intervening chapters that would have put money in the purse. I also felt that Grace and the doctor's relationship could have been explored further, but the reader is left wondering. Perhaps, as in real life sometimes.

On the last page of the epilogue, Shreve threw in one last line upending the ending she had just set up. Annoying, but perhaps genius as well; allowing the reader to write the ending in his/her head.

Other Anita Shreve novels I've read and reviewed:
The Pilot's Wife