Fires in the Dark: A Novel [Paperback]

Louise Doughty (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 6, 2004

His breathing was so slight she could scarcely detect it, even when she lowered her face to his. The smell of him, like new bread, or was it her smell? She could not tell. He and I smell identical, she thought, smiling in the darkness. The barn was softly warm, and the warmth and softness wrapped around mother and child as they curled together in the gloom, breathed together, smelled the same. 'Yenko,' Anna whispered in her son's ear.'Your real name is Yenko.'

It is 1927. In the heart of Central Europe, a son is born to Josef, leader of a nomadic group of Coppersmith Gypsies, and his wife, Anna. For the benefit of most people he is named Emil, but his real name, known only to his mother, is Yenko.

Born in a time of peace and prosperity, Yenko grows up during the Great Depression of the 1930s and is then caught up in the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia and in World War II. Soon he and his family are fugitives. . . . Their flight will end in tragedy for some and miraculous escape for others. . . .

From the inter war years through the drama of the Prague uprising of 1945, Fires in the Dark is a breathtaking novel of epic scope. Louise Doughty has created an authentic and compassionate portrayal of Romany life -- and a celebration of a greatly misunderstood culture, told through the story of one family living in an extraordinary time in history.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

British novelist Doughty (Dance with Me) takes Holocaust literature in a new direction with her chronicle of the fates of a nomadic Romany family. Emil, the light-skinned first child of the leader of a Kalderash Roma tribe, is born in 1927, just as "persons of no fixed abode" are being fingerprinted and made to carry identification papers. Raised by the mild, loving Josef and the strong, lovely Anna, Emil knows that the customs of Roma differ from those of gadje (anyone not a Roma), who eat with utensils instead of fingers and send their children to school instead of teaching them how to gut a chicken and raise a shelter. A few years later, he becomes aware of another way in which the Roma are different: the Nazi regime in Germany, bent on ethnic cleansing, is murdering Jews and harassing Gypsies. When he's 15, Emil and his family are incarcerated in a Moravian labor camp. Doughty recounts the horrifying conditions of the camp in unrelenting detail; the only bright moments come with a mad cook's reminiscences about a career selling Hoover vacuums and Emil's budding friendship with Marie, another young Gypsy. Though Emil's father and siblings die, he escapes and makes his way to Prague, where, due to his light skin, he passes as a gadjo. With false papers and a false limp, Emil returns to the camp to rescue his mother, only to discover that everyone has been sent to Auschwitz. Doughty, whose own ancestors were Romany nomads, tells a heartrending tale of individuals struggling against unimaginable horrors, but offers readers a ray of hope at her novel's close.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Very few Holocaust novels have dealt exclusively with the plight of the European Gypsies during World War II. Doughty brings this neglected subject to life in this heartrending portrait of a Romany family struggling to survive before and during the war. As head of his clan, Joseph Ruzicka has always done a remarkable job holding his nomadic kumpania (tribe) together in spite of incredible prejudice. What is most interesting, however, is the fact that the author also takes pains to detail her protagonist's own ingrained bias against their traditional gadje (white Europeans) enemies. When the Ruzickas are sent to a labor camp, it soon becomes clear that only 15-year-old Emil will have the physical stamina and the emotional will to survive. Urged by his mother to escape, Emil embarks upon a dangerous odyssey that includes turns at murder and thievery. Eventually returning to the camp, he learns the terrible truth: all the Gypsies have been sent to Auschwitz. The vibrant Romany culture springs to life in the pages of this gripping narrative. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Harper; 1 edition (January 6, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060571225
• ISBN-13: 978-0060571221
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.7 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,915,079 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars (3.5) Caught in the firestorm of World War II, February 5, 2004

By 

Luan Gaines "luansos" (Dana Point, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Fires in the Dark: A Novel (Paperback)

This is a tale of the authentic European Gypsies of Romany, nomadic farm workers who are caught up in Hitler's reign of terror, as he purges his homeland. In the Moravian countryside in 1927, an infant is born in a dilapidated barn, a child who will survive the infamous scourge of Hitler's obsession. Beginning with these difficult years, the gypsies are forced to participate in a census that tracks their numbers and their movements, ultimately drawing them into a trap: a mass assignment to an all-gypsy labor camp, their fate sealed.

The novel addresses the decimation of the gypsy population of Eastern Europe, chronicling the gradual movement of fascism across the country and predicting the end of the nomadic families through mandatory registration and specific "rules" that govern the gypsies' mobility. The men do odd jobs for any farmers still willing to hire them as itinerant laborers, moving their families from one place to another, barely able to sustain the illusion of freedom. Eventually, the Germans commandeer the wagons and animals and the gypsy families are restricted to proscribed areas, later transported to special labor camps, thrown into the nightmare they hoped to escape.

The primary family in the novel is subjected to the rigors, starvation and humiliation of the camps and many die in a massive typhus epidemic. Only one escapes, the boy born at the beginning of the story, in 1927. He makes his way to Warsaw, brokering black market goods and passing as a gadje, or white man, with his fair complexion. In relating the struggle for survival and the decimation of the boy's family, the explicit details are depressing, as such a light-heated and joyful people are destroyed by ignorance and evil. Many pages are devoted to the suffering of individual family members, their travails echoed throughout the labor camp, memories that the youth will carry through out his life.

The writing shines during the closing days of the war, when relief is finally in sight. Groups of German soldiers skirmish with the Resistance, while people course through the streets in anticipation of the Allies or the Russians. If the whole book had the energy of the last chapters, it would have made a wonderful read, but the pages are often tedious until the excitement of the ending. For all the human tragedy of those years, Fires in the Dark is an important chapter in a telling history that cannot be forgotten. Luan Gaines/2004.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best read in a long time, January 29, 2005

By 

Kelly C. "kellycarp" (Dover, DE) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fires in the Dark: A Novel (Paperback)

This book caught my attention on the first page and it hasn't ended yet. It opened my eyes to yet another view of WWII. It has interesting characters and a wonderful story line. I could see the countryside and feel their pain. I would read this book again.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and riveting, January 29, 2004

By 

Dorie Schultz "avid reader of historical fiction" (Mequon, Wisconsin) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fires in the Dark: A Novel (Paperback)

This intense, sometimes brutal novel of the internment of Gypsies in concentration camps during Hitler's ethnic cleaning crusade is riveting. The beginning of the book portrays the Roma gypsy's customs, kinship, travel and home life in a very enlightening manner. In a reversal of how gypsies are commonly portrayed, we learn that they are indeed a prideful, skilled and religious people who,in fact, feel that the gadje (anyone who is not Roma) are unclean, slovenly and disgusting. From the time of their imprisonment, we follow Josef's family, Anna his wife, Emil his oldest son and two younger children as they battle to survive.

I think that this is fascinating historical fiction. My only complaint is that the middle section of the book drags a bit too long but the ending is great. Masterful writing and pitch perfect historical detail should draw many readers