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    Fire in the Blood
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    Fire in the Blood
    Unavailable
    Fire in the Blood
    Audiobook3 hours

    Fire in the Blood

    Written by Irene Nemirovsky

    Narrated by Mark Bramhall

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Here is a missing piece of the remarkable posthumous legacy of Irène Némirovsky, author of the internationally acclaimed Suite Française.

    The novel-only now assembled in its entirety-teems with the intertwined lives of an insular French village in the years before the war, when "peace" was less important as a political state than as a coveted personal condition: the untroubled pinnacle of happiness.

    At the center of the tale is Silvio: in his younger years he fled the boredom of the village and made a life of travel and adventure. Now he's returned, living in a farmer's hovel in the middle of the woods, and, much to his family's chagrin, perfectly content with his solitude.

    As his narration unfolds, we are given an intimate picture of the loves and infidelities, the scandals, the youthful ardor and regrets of age that tie Silvio to the long-guarded secrets of the past.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateSep 25, 2007
    ISBN9780739357774
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for Fire in the Blood

    4/5

    284 ratings18 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      What an interesting story, but the message is even better. The story is told by an older man has settled into life and his habits and is quite happy to be left alone.
      He lives in a rural town where there is social standing just as there is in the cities. Though there are people that don't want to admit this or want this to exist. The rural folks seem to have a lot of secrets and they like it that way.
      Secrets are revealed in the story and it awakens fire in the blood for Salvio/Sylvestre. I would have named the book something different based on what he writes, but this was a good read with a good message.
      And what we think is important when we are young isn't necessarily important to us as we grow older and mature.
    • 5/5
      Concise, haunting and atmospheric story of love and missed opportunities in rural France.
    • 5/5
      This gets five stars because of the time and place in which she wrote it. I felt the ending unfinished.
    • 3/5
      This book has been on my TBR pile for four years; I remember finding it at The Strand bookstore in Manhattan, not long after reading Suite Francaise. Fire in the Blood is a novella, about the same length as one part of Nemirovsky's suite. For such a short book, the story develops slowly, as Nemirovsky describes a small French village and its inhabitants. For a long time it's unclear whether the narrator, Sylvestre, is an observer or an active participant in village life. But village life is filled with history and secrets, and as these are revealed Sylvestre's role becomes clear. The preface to the French edition of this book likens it to Proust's Within a Budding Grove, which I recently read. The similarities are there, in the French landscape and the stories of young love. But in Fire in the Blood, passions smolder just below the surface, creating more tension than I experienced in Proust's work.I'm not sure I would recommend this on its own, but if you liked Suite Francaise you'd probably like reading this book as well.
    • 4/5
      About ten years ago I took a course in French Women Writers (in translation). Irène Némirovsky wasn't included, but we read a lot of Colette, de Beauvoir, Duras, and Yourcenar.

      There's a particular tone of writing they all have in common -- maybe it's a fundamental to the way women write in French, or maybe it's fundamental to the experience of being a French woman (although Yourcenar immigrated to eastern Canada). I don't know. But this fit in beautifully with what I read and loved before.

      I'm splitting a difference with four stars. Némirovsky had finished a draft of this novel at the time of her arrest and execution at Auschwitz. The characterization is lovely, the language is exquisite, the story itself complete and achingly beautiful -- if spare.

      But I can imagine her adding a little more. As it stands, there isn't a single excess word. Every detail is vital, which is why it took me days to read such a slim volume. I had to stop and consider, and let every word sink in. I'm glad I did, because all the characters feel vivid and real to me, but I'm not quite content with the build to the ending's final turn.


      I haven't read Suite Française yet, but now I'm very much looking forward to it.
    • 4/5
      The setting is the French countryside in the 1930s, a bourgeois farming community. The lives and secrets of an extended family are observed by a peripheral figure, Silvestre. He was born in the area, but as a young man he'd chosen a life of restless wandering that ad lead nowhere. Meanwhile his peers had moved steadily toward cold, grasping prosperity. Now he has has returned and has settled back in as a single, middle aged man of modest means. He is living out a sedate, uneventful life. His detachment doesn't last, however as the passions and dramas of young couples around him stir up the longings of his own youth, when he was known as Silvio. The transition from young to old is the main theme I took from the book. There are so many ways to look at this trajectory – naive to sophisticated, self-centred to empathic, impulsive/impatient to patient/cautious, hopeful to resigned, energetic to tired, and - swallowing them all in importance these days – pretty to ugly. This author’s take is the movement from generous-spirited and hopeful to pinched, diminished, dulled: the older person is someone who time has shallowed and shrunk. Finding the forgotten young person inside you is your best hope of revitalisation. "I want to bring that stranger to life" Silvestre declares. The author, in her late thirties, does so on his behalf, by recapturing his youth in writing. The novel has the feel of a nineteenth or early twentieth century play - and apparently the author initially considered writing it in that format (Intro, p. xi).
    • 5/5
      What a heartbreaker! And what's she doing with the structure? Note to self: map this book out. Seriously, this is one of the best novels I've read in YEARS. Thanks, Franny!
    • 5/5
      I really loved this little book that explores how love changes from youth to maturity. Who doesn't remember that "fire in the blood" that infects you when you have your first love affair? If you're very lucky perhaps you go on to have a permanent relationship with that first love but, more often, it fizzles out. Even if you have a lasting relationship the quality of the love changes. Nemirovsky obviously knows a thing or two about love and, without having to go into graphic details, she captures the fever pitch of emotions. She also captures the minute details about life in the French countryside: the seasons, the crops, the food, the clothing, the furniture, the quality of the light. It drew me from cold, snowy Manitoba to France in the years between the wars. I wanted to linger but the book was short and soon it was done.
    • 2/5
      BORING. There was really nothing noteworthy about this book.
    • 5/5
      Silvio has returned to his homeland after many years’ absence. He is generally a recluse, but he does spend time with a few friends and relatives from his past, including his cousin Helene and her daughter Colette and his neighbor Declos. Silvio is now an old man and he observes his younger friends with sharp eyes: Silvio sees how the young are driven by fire in the blood, an illness to which he deems himself to now be immune.
    • 5/5
      A small village in France is the setting of Irene Nemirovsky's novella Fire in the Blood. Narrated in the cynical voice of an older man named Silvio, the story centers around Silvio's cousins Helene and Francois Erard, their daughter Collette, and Helene's half sister's adopted daughter Brigette. From the first, the reader understands that Silvio knows more than he is revealing about the lives of his extended family. He has regrets despite his worldly travels.I felt this all the more strongly after such a good meal and excellent wine, thinking back to the past the the cruel enemy who made me run away from this place. I tried being a civil servant in the Congo, a merchant in Tahiti, a trapper in Canada. Nothing made me happy. I thought I was seeking my fortune; in reality I was being propelled forward by the fire in my young blood. But as these passions are now extinguished I no longer know who I am. I feel I've travelled a long, pointless road, simply to end up where I began. - from Fire in the Blood, page 18 -Silvio has wasted his inheritance and now lives alone with only his dog and maid for company. He is a fine observer of life in the village and notices the secrets people seek to conceal. Gradually those secrets are revealed, uncovering the smoldering embers of passion in those closest to him.Nemirovsky is a brilliant writer, and in this slim book she demonstrates her skill at exposing the darkness of the human soul through careful and deliberate character development. Silvio is not completely likable, and yet he draws the reader to him slowly and relentlessly. Everyone, it seems, harbors a secret...and it is Silvio who holds the key.At its heart, Fire in the Blood is about the contrast between youth and old age, connection with others vs. solitude, passion vs. complacency. Nemirovsky deftly explores the comfort of solitude and ordinary life, and contrasts that with the power and joy of unrestrained love and the passion of youth.And how can I define the pleasure I find here? I enjoy simple things, things within reach: a nice meal, some good wine, the secret, bitter pleasure of writing in this notebook; but, most especially, this divine solitude. What else do I need? But when I was twenty, how I burned! How is this fire lit within us? It devours everything and then, in a few years, a few months, a few hours even, it burns itself out. - from Fire in the Blood, page 52 -I thoroughly enjoyed the passages which described the French countryside, its food and traditions, and the rhythm of life in a small village. In 1937, Nemirovsky made a trip to a village in Burgundy called Issy-l'Eveque...it was this small town which became the setting for Fire in the Blood (and later for the second part - Dolce - of her last novel Suite Francaise)We thresh the wheat around here. It's the end of summer, time to do the last of the heavy farm work for this season. A day of labour and a day to celebrate. Enormous golden flan cases bake in the oven; since the beginning of he week the children have been shaking plums off the trees so they can decorate them with fruit. There are a huge number of plums this year. The small orchard behind my house is buzzing with bees; the grass is dotted with ripe fruit, the golden skin bursting with little drops of sugar. On threshing day every household takes pride in offering their workers and neighbours the best wine, the thickest cream in the region. To go with them: pies crammed full of cherries and smothered with butter; those small, dry goat cheeses our farmers love so much; bowls of lentils and potatoes; and finally coffee and brandy. - from Fire in the Blood, page 64 -Fire in the Blood is a quick read at less than 130 pages - but it is rich with detail. In many ways, this novella reminded me of Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome - another story which is propelled by the dark mysteries of its characters. It is likely that Fire in the Blood was a manuscript in process - an unfinished work - as Irene Nemirovsky's voice was silenced in 1942 at the hands of the Nazis. Despite this, the book works on every level from plot to character development to setting. Fire in the Blood remind us of Nemirovsky's acute understanding of the human heart and her ability to reveal that which resides deep inside all of us. She is a talented writer who brings to life a small French village and its people, surprising us with secrets hidden beneath a facade of innocence. Fire in the Blood is a satisfying read and one which I highly recommend.
    • 4/5
      A tightly written, neat "what goes around comes around" scenario with a knowing narrator commenting on the shenanigans both modern and ancient of his extended family. The passions and rashness of youth...
    • 4/5
      Fire In The Blood is the second manuscript published after the death of Irene Nemirovsky, who died in a concentration camp during World War II. Her husband started to type this story before his arrest, and for years, many thought that the story would remain unfinished – until French scholars looking through Nemirovsky’s papers found the handwritten version. The end result is a moving yet raw look into love and passion set in the French countryside.Silvio was a former playboy who settled back into his French farm once he reached middle age. Unmarried, his former lifestyle made him more observant of the passion (fire in the blood) of his younger village inhabitants. Fire In The Blood had all of the aspects of a reckless love story – women cheating on their aging husbands, lovers committing crimes of passion and older, wiser people shaking their heads at it all.The story was easy to read and gripping, which was remarkable when you consider the conditions in which it was written and published. It did not have the “normal” editing process that would have occurred if Nemirovsky survived. However, there was something charming about this story that an editorial polish may have stripped. Some things are better left alone.If you enjoyed Suite Francaise, then I would recommend Fire In The Blood to you. I would also recommend it if you are interested in learning more about life in French villages before World War II – it provided a wonderful glimpse into this provincial world.
    • 4/5
      We will never know the full extent of Nemirovsky's literary brilliance because her life ended too soon for her total potential to be realized. The works that she left were written under dreadful conditions, and yet their impact is overwhelming.Fire in the Blood takes place in a small French town and is built around long-held secrets that are gradually revealed involving two generations. The secrets include infidelities, murder, and an illegitimate child. The events are seen through the eyes and memories of Silvio, whose involvement deepens as the novel unfolds. Nemirovsky's death in Auschwitz is as haunting as the books she left behind.
    • 3/5
      Interesting. Do we lie to ourselves? Life if a small village where secrets are kept. I recently listened to an NPR show where they said a characteristic of the French is to keep secrets. Not as compelling as Suite Francais.
    • 4/5
      Two generations of adultery and infidelity in the rural French countryside between the wars. A quick read.
    • 5/5
      Nemirovsky's brilliance continues in this short novel that was only recently discovered. My favorite thing about her work is the unbelievable truth in it - as you read her work, it could be set in the here and now, rather than the 1940s. This truth is what makes her work so revolutionary, and I am now eager to read David Golder.Not to mention the conditions Irene Nemirovsky worked under during this time period - a truly remarkable woman.
    • 4/5
      Entirely predictable, but that isn't really the point. Nice prose, very evocative.