The Bone Fire

What happens when a country is freed? The dictator has been shot in the head and the trappings of oppression burned in a ritual, but the secrets have not come to light and the old reflexes still work: violence may break out again at any moment. Emma, thirteen, is a strong girl full of adolescent wildness. She has lost her home and her parents at once, but her grandmother appears out of nowhere and takes her in. In her new life everything is at stake: grief, friendship and her first great love. From her witch-like grandmother Emma learns the magic of everyday life and rituals that can turn fate, yet her own strength may be greater still: perhaps she can refuse historical guilt and step out of the bloody whirlpool of never forgiving. The novel is both a family story and a historical panorama.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Length

443 pages in the original

Genres

Coming of age, Family, Politics (assigned by AI)

First published

2014 by Magvető

Author's age

41 when first published

ISBN

9789631429978 (original)

9780544527201 (Mariner Books, United States)