Home Fires - Softcover

Home Fires is the eloquent, moving and often shocking story of a passionate and fiercely intelligent woman. Growing up in 1960s Dublin in a wealthy Jewish family, Shivaun survives the physical abuse of a beautiful and damaged mother and the relentless control of a domineering father. Desperate to belong, she abandons her Jewish roots and falls in love with a Catholic musician, the bass player of an up-and-coming band called 'The Boomtown Rats'. When he goes to London, leaving Shivaun behind, she flees her family, her home and her country to seek comfort among the followers of an Indian guru.At 21, still haunted by her past, Shivaun goes to Miami and marries a handsome refugee, straight off the boat from Cuba. But Julio is a womaniser and drug dealer and Shivaun soon becomes embroiled in Miami's seedy underworld. Eight months pregnant, she finds herself in prison, her chances of ever gaining US citizenship ruined. After Julio is sent down for trafficking, Shivaun falls for another man, who subjects her and her sons to terrifying violence. Finally, she walks away and, alone with two small boys, she fights back, eventually earning respect as a mother, a scholar and community activist. For the first time, she also discovers meaningful love and is then, at last, able to begin plotting her journey home.

Shivaun Woolfson was born in Dublin in 1958. She now lives in London with her two sons where she teaches creative writing.