Night of Fire

His calm, contemplative tone and his mastery of imagery…are on full display here.

Edmund Gordon, Sunday Times

Thubron returns with what might be his masterpiece… Thubron’s prose shines a penetrating light on the nature of memory and being human. Sublime.

Simon Humphreys, Mail on Sunday

Medicine owes an equal debt of gratitude to him for evoking a journey through the brain with the same adventurous and beguiled spirit as he might a rainforest or ancient city… With the ease of a master craftsman he makes up new words…lovingly evokes the extraordinary places he has passed through… This outstanding novel confirms that there is nowhere Thubron fears to tread.

Melissa Katsoulis, The Times

An engrossing, unsettling and brutally beautiful masterpiece.

John Harding, Daily Mail

The novel impresses with its literary craft and ambition.

Ian Thomson, Evening Standard

Intensely moving

Tim Martin, Sunday Telegraph

A deeply personal, characteristically ambitious book.

John Preston, Daily Telegraph

A compelling, lyrical tale of how a single spark unravels seven entwined lives.

Hannah Shaddock, Radio Times

Each life story…is told with all this writer’s irresistible narrative gift

Ursula K. Le Guin, Guardian

Thubron has written a novel which is at once disturbing and consoling. It makes you both think and feel at the same time, which is perhaps what the best fiction does more surely than any other art form.

Allan Massie, Spectator

Each character [is] perfectly formed.

Choice Magazine

Thubron’s prose is, of course, finely crafted. He veers in style between lyrical heights… Night of Fire could best be described as a poetic and erudite meditation on the journey of life.

Linden Burleigh, Literary Review

[It is] beautifully written, as vivid as Thubron’s striking travel writing… Night of Fire fuses realism with the structure of a modern fable.

Anjali Joseph, Times Literary Supplement

By [one] of the most brilliant writers of our day... Night of Fire evokes the emotions of seven tenants, plus their landlord, when their apartment house is burnt down

Jan Morris, Spectator, Book of the Year

Thubron’s ability to span that geographical, cultural and philosophical range is just one remarkable element of this profound and exquisite novel

Washington Post

Ambitious but accomplished, Night Of Fire is a meditation on memory, mortality and what makes us who we are. Thubron’s readiness to deal with profound questions is impressive and the novel leaves a lasting trace.

Alastair Mabbott, Herald Scotland

Set in a house that’s burning to the ground… It a series of poignant, interlocked vignettes, Thubron deftly sketches the lives of the doomed inhabitants, evoking powerful images of place, of loss and shared humanity.

Simon Shaw, Mail on Sunday