Fire Fire
Allen&Unwin 2004

A darkly tragic and comic fusion of incompatibles – on the one hand an extended play on several goat nursery rhymes; and on the other a savage story of modern eccentricity and the drive for the Good Life – natural clean living and alternative lifestyles gone horribly awry. The Houdini family escape from the great world to a dilapidated and isolated residence in the bush near the fictional town of Toggenberg, where Acantia Houdini the artist hopes her seven children and famous violist husband can become self-sufficient as artists, musicians and poets. All is not, however, home grown spinach and classical music. The children become increasingly feral; Acantia more and more eccentric; and the isolated family is befriended by the languid, honey-voiced and furry-eared Count Ugolini who has an eye for teenagers of either sex. A story rich in music, art, poetry and goats built on a central theme of the escape from the explosive nuclear family. Published in Australia and New Zealand in 2004, US and Bulgaria in 2006. Slashed with its multiple flashes of refining fire and humour both subtle and ribald, Fire Fire is a dark and powerful fable, a brilliantly warped and extravagant exposition of a human commonplace that sees children love and feel responsible for their parents no matter how they have been treated by them. Katherine England. To buy a copy click here.