Gabriella's Book of Fire has also been published as Firehead, and is by a Brisbane author. It's set in Brisbane, during the last 30 or so years, and I enjoyed learning a bit more about Brisbane history, having only lived here for 5 years.
This book was chosen for our August book club discussion, but unfortunately, we talked about an enormous amount of other things, and not a great deal about the book. I did really enjoy it - Armanno writes very lyrically, and it's a pleasure to sink into his words.
One member of the book club, describing herself as very pragmatic, said that Sam's unrequited and almost unreasonable passion for Gabriella (which is the central premise) irritated her enormously. I was surprised that it didn't irritate me, actually - usually I dislike characters pining after someone for a lengthy amount of time, but it seemed to fit within the feel, the vibe, of the story. It was a somewhat dreamlike tale, thick with memories, so the fact that the ghost of this man's teenage love permeated it made sense to me.
I was disappointed by the novel's conclusion, but enjoyed the book enough to recommend it as a nice light read - a 3/5 kind of book.
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