The Great Fire: FSG 80th Anniversary Special Edition

Shirley Hazzard’s “brilliant and dazzling” (Ann Patchett) National Book Award–winning novel of love, loss, and renewal in the aftermath of war.

Set in the years immediately following the Second World War, The Great Fire follows a generation emerging from devastation, still young but forever changed, as they struggle to rebuild their lives and imagine a future. At the heart of the novel is an unlikely pair—a soldier and a young woman, each standing on the threshold of self-discovery—who find in one another the possibility of reclaiming their humanity amid a world transformed by war.

Hazzard’s final novel is a luminous exploration of love and war, idealism and disillusionment, and the enduring search for meaning in a fractured world. More than twenty years after its original publication, The Great Fire remains a remarkable testament to Hazzard’s extraordinary gifts: her worldly perspective, keen intelligence, wit, and richly evocative prose.