X-Book

Home Fires

Click Buy to Log in and see personalised pricing.

Send as a gift Get in the xigxag app
How does xigxag pricing work?

Listen to a sample

What to expect

A stunning, delicate portrait of a family bookended by war, Home Fires explores the legacy of loss, the strictures of class and the long road to redemption.

Max Weston, twenty-one, leaves for his first army posting in central Africa. What happens to him changes the lives of his family forever. At home, his parents struggle to cope. The overwhelming love Caroline has always felt for her only child is now matched by the intensity of Max's absence. The silence is broken by the arrival of Caroline's mother-in-law, Elsa, who at the age of ninety-eight can no longer look after herself. After years of living in fear of putting a foot wrong in front of this elegant, cuttingly courteous lady, finally, Caroline has the upper hand.

Critics Review

‘Elizabeth Day writes with unflinching, responsible honesty; I was inspired and enlightened by the deep humanity of Home Fires’ Sadie Jones
‘Day is an empathetic observer. She is meticulous in teaching and dissecting each sentence her characters experience … The prose is deliberate, precise and bone dry … Elizabeth Day pursues her study of characters attempting to keep the past at bay with a biblical intensity reminiscent of early Anita Brookner and a prose style closer to that of Pat Barker … Home Fires conveys a broader version of life with the claustrophobia of emotional repression’ Eileen Battersby, Irish Times
‘Day has created a compelling study of grief, not least the conflicting ways in which the bereaved may wish to remember the dead … A bold novel, shocking in what it confronts and also in its suggestion that love will, ultimately, survive trauma’ Daily Telegraph
‘Day's great strength is her insight … An elegant, addictive portrayal of a family at war with its past. A beautifully written novel whose quietly discomfiting tone stays with you for a long while afterwards’ Observer
‘Deeply moving’ Woman's Own
‘Very sad and very lovely’ Grazia
‘An elegant meditation … Elizabeth Day's lyrical Home Fires comes highly recommended’ Viv Groskop, Observer Book of the Year
Author Elizabeth Day
Narrator Lucy Scott
Duration 9 hours and 8 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9780008339890
Format x-book®
Publisher HarperCollins Publishers
Genre Modern and contemporary fiction, War, combat and military adventure fiction
Availability AU, GB, IE, US

More from the same

Author

Narrator

About xigxag and the x-book®

xigxag is an independent, UK-based audiobook platform and the UK’s only B Corp certified audiobook company. We offer nearly 150,000 audiobooks, all with professional human narration. No AI-generated voices. xigxag is rated an Ethical Consumer Best Buy for audiobooks and a top-rated ethical bookshop.

Our x-book® format is the only fully integrated listen-and-read experience available. See the text on screen as you listen, look up words, take notes, search within the book, and share quotes. It is especially useful for accessibility, language learning, and getting more from non-fiction. Look for the purple x-book® ribbon on the cover, or filter your search by “x-book” to find them.

There is no subscription. You buy the audiobooks you want, you own them permanently, and prices start at £8.99. The more you listen over the year, the less you pay per book, and there is always a selection in Listen for Less from £3.99. You can also send audiobooks as gifts using our audiobook gift cards or in-app gifting.

Every audiobook on xigxag has honest reviews covering both the book and the narration, and our community features make it easy to share what you are listening to, discover what others recommend, and find your next listen.

Download or stream on iOS, Android, or in your browser. Browse the full catalogue at xigxag.co.uk.