Cirrus@Austlit

'A year after her best friend died in a house fire, Lara can’t come to terms with the loss. Logic says there was no more she could have done to save the mercurial and unhappy Alice, but Lara can’t escape the feeling that she is somehow to blame for the tragedy.

'She spends a weekend at the rebuilt house with Alice’s charismatic widower, Crow, and his three young children. Rummaging through the remains of their shared past, Lara reveals a friendship with Alice that was as troubled as it was intense. But beneath the surface is a darker, more unsettling secret waiting to be exposed.

'Through exquisite prose and searing insight, Into the Fire explores the many ways, small and large, we betray one another and our ideals. It’s a compelling story about power, guilt and womanhood from an outstanding voice in Australian fiction.'  (Publication summary)

'"Looking back, I realise I'd always been waiting for the arrival of Noël Mewton-Wood. His entrance occurred with such ease that I began to believe he'd always been there, standing in the wings, long before I'd even laid eyes on him."

'London, November 1945: at a bohemian party, a young music student meets the charismatic concert pianist Noël Mewton-Wood. The two immediately become lovers, and the affair unleashes an overwhelming passion as grand and sublime as the music they both love.

'Ten years on, the student, now a successful writer, reflects on the affair, the forces that shaped him and the one he adored, and the romantic obsession that ruled and almost ruined his life.

'This assured, beautifully written debut novel is inspired by the brilliant life of Australian pianist Noël Mewton-Wood. Sonia Orchard vividly evokes the artistic world of post-war London in a novel of striking illuminations about music and imagination that is also a compelling and deeply moving love story.' (Publisher's blurb)