Guest review

Fire in the Blood is a worthy introduction to the writings of Irène Némirovsky, whose life came to an untimely end in an Auschwitz infirmary in 1942. Its plot is characteristic of her unerring attention to psychological detail and character development, both of which slowly unfold in intensity within a novella-length study.

Set in the French countryside of Issy-l’Evêque, it tells of seemingly calm relationships in a village community disrupted by a youth’s death by drowning. Predictable and scenic rituals of birth, marriage and passing seasons contrast with the restless follies of youthful passion (fire in the blood), and the inner struggle to reconcile both forces.

Némirovsky is a sympathetic but unflinching narrator of her characters’ manipulations, and the steady unmasking of their calm facades. The discovery of this piece – completed in her last year – comes as part of a larger, ongoing, literary discovery of a writer whose craft is deservedly comparable to the chamber fictions of Chekov and Sagan.

Maloti Ray is a customer of Readings Carlton