Started out well
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Fires in the Dark follows the fortunes of a Roma family in the years leading up to world war two and the war years. The history of the Roma people and their treatment is a subject I hadn't read about before. The historical aspects of the book were excellent and I will be looking for more to read on the Roma. As a novel the characters didn't work out for me. When Yenko becomes the main character I found my interest slipping. Anna's story would have appealed to me more.
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memorable and unusual take on the Holocaust
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As well as murdering 6 million Jews, Hitler did his best to exterminate the Gypsies. This is the story of how just one escaped, Yenko, from a copper-working Romany tribe, thanks to the sacrifice made by his heroic mother, and his own luck and intelligence. His birth, childhood and journey into manhood against the background of the Nazi rise to power make history live. Doughty is herself part-Romany, and writes with real passion and insight as well as what looks like a lot of research. Her characters break your heart.
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What a brilliant book!
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This is a wonderful book, moving and passionate. The characters are real and touchable. The story is full of the kind of true detail that's completely absorbing. It tells the story of a Romani family and how their lives are destroyed by the Nazi's. Its a tough subject, but this book is really worth it. It doesn't shy away from the realities, but neither does it dwell unnecessarily on the worst of it. The places and major events are based on fact. So I learned a lot, as well as being totally gripped by a brilliant story. Buy this book!
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Wide-ranging, ambitious and brilliantly achieved
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Up to now, Louise Doughty has written fairly small scale domestic dramas, entertaining but limited in their scope. With this book she stakes a claim as a serious novelist tackling the biggest issues and succeeds brilliantly. The history of a gypsy family in eastern europe during the second world war can only be a tragic story. Doughty turns an unflinching eye on the worst that humans can do to each other, with an anger that is barely suppressed, but without resorting to simplistic value judgements. The story is dark and the misery is piled up until you wish for some joy to lighten the mood, but Doughty builds your interest in her characters so that you can't stop reading. The subject matter of the book is likely to put off a lot of people. Sadly, anti-gypsy prejudice is alive and well, from Romania to Norfolk. This matters to Doughty and she has devoted energy and passion into this book. Don't be put off. Read this book.
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I love this book!
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I bought it after a read about it in the Guardian, comparing it to Dostoevsky...it's wonderful to find someone living writing about big, tragic things instead of small, trivial ones. The first chapter isn't so great, but after that it really gets going. The way Yenko's starving mother begs for her child, the way his father stands up to prejudice against Gypsies, their suffering and death in the Nazi camps made me want to cry. When Yenko gets away and murders the old couple it was horrible but just the way I imagine anyone would behave after going through all that. I thought this a fantastic book, the best I've read this year besides Rose Tremain's The Colour.
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