Bonfire Night
“Ambition” is the first word of Anna Bliss’s tightly structured and beautifully written novel opening in London in October 1936. Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts are storming the Jewish section of Whitechapel, and their antisemitic fascism makes clear that Hitler’s German campaign has violent advocates across the Channel. Kate Grifferty is the ambitious protagonist, a young photojournalist covering the hostilities. Snapping shots while standing on the top of a car, she encounters David Rabatkin, an equally ambitious medical student there to look out for his brother Simon, the charismatic Communist leader defying the Blackshirts. Kate and David feel a powerful mutual attraction—and an impossible one. She’s an independently minded Irish Catholic; he’s enmeshed in his family. Neither a girl news photographer nor an impoverished Jewish would-be doctor has an easy path, so they must be dedicated. Nor has either planned for love, but a passionate connection overwhelms them despite all.
The story carries us through WWII, as London is bombed and Kate and David’s strong personalities, and familial and professional situations, challenge them and each other. Between the dangers of war and the demands of their lives, their relationship becomes increasingly difficult. Anna Bliss depicts their passion and their conflicts with a perceptive eye in this moving, complicated story. Bonfire Night’s distinctive angle on WWII impacts the unique Juliet and Romeo scenario, compelling and surprising readers from the beginning to the epilogue, set in 1945. Bliss’s author’s note is helpful, and she includes a readers’ guide. Highly recommended.
