Fire - by Caroline Allen (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Winner of the 2018 Independent Publisher Award, Gold Medal for Visionary Fiction.

Twenty-something Pearl Swinton is on walkabout for a year across Southeast Asia with her boyfriend, Finn. Pearl is a travel writer and encounters a host of dynamic characters, from a boat boy in the Philippines, to a penitent in Nepal, to a rickshaw driver in India, each challenging her world view. In search of her life purpose, Pearl is being pulled more deeply away from all that is familiar on this journey, a path that began when she moved to Tokyo from the U.S. years earlier. Who is the self behind cultural conditioning? Who is she when no one is telling her who to be? What is her calling? The couple ends up in London, where Pearl finds some semblance of home, while Finn struggles to belong in a place he left behind years before. Pearl ultimately realizes that before she can go upward and understand this illusory "purpose", she must journey down into the self and heal. In the end, she is faced with a decision that could reduce to ashes the life she has built, and destroy all that she holds dear.

Review Quotes

"I fell in love with Caroline Allen's writing with the first book in this series, Earth. Allen's writing is at times intense and brutal and at others nuanced and tender--and always captivating and heart opening. Read Fire if you want to feel deeply." - Ebu

"Caroline Allen paints vivid pictures with her words in this well told story. And what better way to describe this read than in Pearls own words: 'There are whispers and spirits between the lines of every tale.' Can't wait for 'Water'!" - Judith Laxer, author of Along the Wheel of Time

"Caroline Allen's writing is captivating and fully authentic at the same time that it is lyrical, poetic, soulful - a sometimes surprising combination." -- Julie Maninna, author of the upcoming A Branch for Each New Sky