Fire in the blood

A morality tale with doubtful morals, a story of murder, love and betrayal in rural France, Fire in the Blood is set in a small village. An old man looks back on a chequered life with secret regrets, concealing a truth he will not reveal until the end. This book is a small and beautiful chamber piece which starts quietly, lyrically, but then races away with revelations and narrative twists in a story about young women forced into marriages with old men, about mothers and daughters, stepmothers and stepdaughters, youthful passions and the regrets of old age, about peasant communities and the way they hide their secrets.