Bonfire Night

by Anna Bliss Narrated by Alix Dunmore

Overview

Set before and during World War II, this moving, intricately wrought historical novel brings together a young Irish Catholic photographer and a British Jewish medical student, each discovering the price of love, art, and ambition.
London, 1936: At twenty-one, Kate Grifferty is a press photographer in a Fleet Street agency, an unusual job for a young woman. But Kate is both talented and daring, recklessly going wherever the story might be-including, one October day, to an anti-fascism protest in East London.
There, she meets David Rabatkin, a brilliant Jewish medical student. While his idealistic brother is eager to go to Spain and join the fight for the Republic, David knows where his path lies: at home, fulfilling the expectations of his profession and his family.
Kate is exposed for the first time to the dangers and demands of David's world, where marrying within the Jewish faith is seen as not only preferable, but key to survival. Kate neither expects nor wants to be any man's wife, hampered by convention. And though she and David are both
outsiders, as war looms, other differences between them are thrown into sharp relief.
Brighton, 1940: Catastrophe forces Kate to flee London, and the onslaught of war finds her working at her sister's seaside boardinghouse, while David tends patients at a busy London hospital as the Blitz rages. But Kate's challenges and disappointments have only deepened her desire to
capture images of life unfurling around her, the beauty and violence, struggles and surprising joys. Andsoon fate and ambition will align, providing her with the chance to make her mark at last ...
“A treasure of a novel, beautifully written with the unflinching style and subtle psychological insights of such masters as Ian McEwan and Graham Swift.”-Natalie Jenner, Author of Bloomsbury Girls

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

11/06/2023

An Irish Catholic photojournalist and a Jewish medical student fall in love and navigate the obstacles put in their way by their demanding families in Bliss’s wrenching debut. It’s October 1936 when ambitious young photographer Kate Grifferty covers an antifascist protest in London’s East End and catches the eye of protestor David Rabatkin. Over the following months, they hide their affair from David’s Jewish family, who would disown him if he married outside the religion. Eventually caving to familial pressure, David breaks off their relationship, and Kate flees to her older sister’s boardinghouse in Brighton, carrying with her an enormous secret. When she and David unexpectedly reunite during the height of the Blitz four years later, their feelings for each other are both as hot and as conflicted as ever. David is ready to defy his family, but then Kate gets the career opportunity of a lifetime, which would require her to stay single. Kate’s ambivalence over David grows frustrating at times, but the story comes alive in Bliss’s meticulous account of the threats of fascism and antisemitism as well as in her exploration of the messiness of love and family. This is a well-crafted contribution to WWII fiction. Agent: Heather Jackson, Heather Jackson Literary. (Dec.)

From the Publisher

Praise for Bonfire Night:

“[A] wrenching debut…the story comes alive in Bliss’s meticulous account of the threats of fascism and antisemitism as well as in her exploration of the messiness of love and family. This is a well-crafted contribution to WWII fiction.” —Publishers Weekly

“[A] tender debut about the price of female ambition….At times wrenching but also emotionally rewarding.” – Toronto Star

“A remarkably impressive debut and a most tender work of art, providing a heartrending look at a couple in love while the world implodes and explodes around them. With the eye of a painter, Bliss uses the finest of brushes to vividly and crisply depict her characters while displaying an astonishing breadth of compassion for the situations in which they must struggle and persevere. Bonfire Night is a treasure of a novel, beautifully written with the unflinching style and subtle psychological insights of such masters as Ian McEwan and Graham Swift.” —Natalie Jenner, internationally bestselling author of The Jane Austen Society and Bloomsbury Girls

"If you are a fan of Kate Quinn or Kristin Harmel, pull up a chair and settle down with Anna Bliss’s propulsive debut Bonfire Night.  Wonderfully written and exquisitely researched, the work is a rare look into the rise of fascism in London preceding World War II, while exploring the costs of both love, female ambition and the lengths we will go to in order to make our mark on the world.“ —Jo Piazza, international bestselling author of The Knockoff and We Are Not Like Them

"This beautifully written, timely historical novel encompasses so much – difficult family ties, female ambition, and the sacrifices we make for love. With her meticulous research and heartrending descriptions of life in Brighton during the war, Anna Bliss had me turning the pages into the night." —Janet Skeslien Charles, New York Times and International bestselling author of The Paris Library

“Bonfire Night is the whole package: an immersive World War II read with a sweetly fraught love story and strong, unforgettable characters. I was mesmerized by it and read long into the night, unable to put it down.” —Martha Conway, author of The Physician’s Daughter

“Bonfire Night is a beautifully crafted book about love, war, hope, fear, betrayal, and forgiveness; about missed chances and impossible choices. And although this is Anna Bliss’s first novel it’s the work of a wise and warmhearted storyteller, someone who understands what’s at stake when decent people find themselves caught in the surging currents of history.” —Stephen Harrigan, author of The Gates of the Alamo

“Bonfire Night is a powerful, poignant debut written with the skill of a master. Ms Bliss's perfectly flawed characters and exceptional research led me on  a rich, multi-layered journey of love, betrayal, heartbreak, and most compelling of all, a burning search for freedom within the raging fires of war." —Genevieve Graham, USA Today bestselling author of Letters Across the Sea
 
“Magnificently written, Anna Bliss’s Bonfire Night is a captivating story of love and war. It’s a beautifully crafted novel with a fresh view on the rise of fascism in WWII.” —Alan Hlad, internationally bestselling author of Churchill’s Secret Messenger

Product Details

BN ID:	2940160339092
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	12/26/2023
Edition description:	Unabridged

Videos