CHILDREN AND FIRE

At the core of this novel is the question of how one teacher gifted and joyful, passionate and inventive can become seduced by propaganda and, in turn, influence her students. How can a woman we admire choose a direction we don't admir

So much has changed for the people of Burgdorf in the year since the parliament burned down and a young Communist, half-crazy and half-blind, was arrested. Thekla Jansen's lover, Emil, is sure the Nazis set the fire to frame the Communists. But Thekla believes what she hears on the government controlled radio, that the Nationalsozialisten kept the Communists from taking over Germany, and she's willing to relinquish some of her freedoms to feel protected. Of course the Nazis won't last, she tells Emil. They're too coarse, too loud. But for the time being, she tries to adapt. On this anniversary of the parliament fire, this one day in February 1934 the time span of CHILDREN AND FIRE Thekla can't know yet the terrible impact of her teaching. Just like Hegi's bestselling STONES FROM THE RIVER (over one million copies sold; winner of the 2010 Livres de Poche Readers Prize), this new novel is written along that intense edge where sorrow and bliss touch. Some of the central characters first met in STONES FROM THE RIVER are on the periphery here, including Trudi Montag and her father Leo Montag. Others who were secondary characters have become major characters in CHILDREN AND FIRE.