The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard is an award-winning fictional tale (2003 National Book Award) about a decorated war hero named Major Aldred Leith. Aldred wishes to write a book about his experience in Asia and how Asia recovers from World War II. Aldred falls in love with a teenage girl, Helen Driscoll, while in Kure researching his book. Aldred must get past his cynical views caused by his loveless childhood and broaden his capacity for love. He struggles with his feelings for Helen because she is much younger than him, but ultimately follows his heart and pursues a relationship with her.
Shirley Hazzard's fiction is known and admired for its complexly bourgeois pleasures and interests, its internal personal and symbolic dynamics and complexities. However, also important to Hazzard are...
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Shirley Hazzard