An audio book
Fran has returned to the Australian town where she was brought up to look after her father, who's had a stroke. She sees in the distance a fire that's approaching the city. She has a son Dante who she had when she was 15. He's now 29. He spent years in Italy. She also has a daughter Veronica (Vonny) who visits in the weekends.
Chapter 2 is 10 days before the fire. Successive chapters get closer. We also get flashbacks to 30 years before, and to what happens at the time of the fire - ostriches burn; passengers burn in their cars.
Fran's Italian mother died in a road accident. Vincent is Fran's ex-partner. He's just started living with someone else.
Fran's one-night stand when 15 was with an older schoolboy (called "The Border" during family chats) who's going to be married soon at a ceremony organised by a neighbour (now nicknamed The Captain) who's a man Fran liked (he was kind to her at school though not attractive then). His brother killed himself soon after befriending Fran at school. His wife has died. His daughter Rose is quickly sexually attracted to Vonny. The two of them find in a nunnery a box of Fran's which now has suggestive photos of young Fran, and they tell the Captain about it, who tells Fran. Fran asks the nunnery about it. They return a box to her, without the photos. She later spies Father Frank moving boxes.
Before the fire, Rose punches a boy who'd been racist and anti-lesbian on church grounds. The church bans Fran and family. Fran confesses to Priest Frank that she fantacises about attacking perverted priests.
As the wall of fire advances, some decide to retreat to bunkers. Fran chooses who to save. She saves the nun who taught her. Father Frank dies.
During the fire Fran thinks she can see red boots on the water tower. Rose or Vonny? She discovers that Vonny wasn't wearing the boots.
Emotional surprises seem too easily received.
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