What a good surprise !
I chose this book a bit by chance, the cover spoke to me and I wanted to read a text about Romania ...
I discovered a well-known Hungarian writer (who grew up in Romania) (at least in his country) and a story full of imagination out of the ordinary for a West European reader.

Dragomán tells the story of a young girl, Emma, ​​13, who loses her parents in an accident just during the Romanian revolution. After a short time in a children's home, an old lady comes to pick her up, explaining that she would be her grandmother.

The story tells about a year of young Emma's life together with her grandmother, in a small village in Romania, during the revolution of 1989. Life there is very different from the one I had at the time. same age around the same time in Germany (although there are parallels between adolescent lives as well).
Emma learns a lot of household chores from her grandmother, but also a bit of witchcraft - or is that just old natural wisdom?
Above all, Emma realizes following the reactions of the inhabitants of the village that there was a problem in her family, she learns a lot about the history of her grandmother and her grandfather (who died just a few months before his arrival in the House).

The reader learns with her, especially about the history and customs in Romania during World War II and after, until the revolution. The revolution, like many other revolutions, did not have the expected results for the people. An atmosphere of disappointment, resignation, hatred and mistrust reigns in the village, and it will be Emma to contribute to a change.

I had only very vague ideas of this country. In fact I had a correspondent friend in Romania just before that time, who never wrote again after the revolution, but I was too young and too limited to find out more than that at the time.
After reading this I couldn't say that I understand much more about what happened, but I get a sense or a sense of the atmosphere of life in this country at that time.

Considering the parts of the extraordinary imagination and witchcraft, I would recommend this story rather to readers who do not feel disturbed by spirits and supernatural events - even if they are not on every page.

The blurb caught my attention but after that I lost my interest and didn't read this book. Maybe next time.

György Dragomán's The Bone Fire takes place in an unnamed Eastern European nation along two timelines: World War II and the fall of the Iron Curtain. This story is bleak, as one might expect given its settings. In the more recent timeline, a girl is removed from an orphanage by a grandmother she's never met, due to a rift between the girl's mother and her grandmother. Now that her parents have died in an auto accident, this is the only hope she has of family, but her grandmother is a curt, unsettling woman—and perhaps a witch, of the "unnerving wise woman who can influence the flow of events" type. The girl's dead grandfather visits the home she shares with her grandmother, and he is an oddly comforting character. The World War II part of the narrative focuses on the Grandmother's childhood attempt to hide her best friend and two of that friend's relatives, all Jewish, when the deportations begin.

Regardless of timeline, this isn't a comfortable world to live in. The grandparents were accused of collaborating with the secret police during the dictatorship, the grandmother is distrusted because of both her powers and her combative demeanor. The girl herself speaks little and fears much for many reasons: the loss of her parents and the tensions in their relationship before they died, the unfamiliarity of her new home, her inability to fit in with her peers, and her grandmother's strictness and—perhaps?—powers.

Trust is in short supply in this novel. The town the girl is taken to by her grandmother was the site of an authoritarian massacre shortly before the end of the dictatorship. The archives of the secret police were purged, so no one can determine the roles their friends and neighbors may have played during the years of oppression.

I began reading this novel in March, then put it aside about two-thirds of the way through, feeling overwhelmed by its bleak perspective and slow action. Others' reviews had me convinced, however, that it was a book I should complete, so I picked it up again yesterday and read through the last third, telling myself I could skim if necessary. There was no need for skimming—in the last third of the novel the pace picks ups and conflicts come to a head. We see the way violence can engender violence, the way those united in fighting oppression can turn on one another after the immediate goal of that fight is reached. It's a book that leaves the reader sitting motionless, reflecting on what it means to be human and how easily our best intentions can transform into something nightmarish.

If you're someone who enjoys light reading, romance, a happy ending, this is most definitely not the book for you. If you enjoy pondering the interplay of past and present and the ways some of our worst historical moments have shaped us, this is a book you'll treasure.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher; the opinions are my own.

[I will also be posting this review on Edelweiss and LibraryThing.]

This book was unlike anything else I've read. It takes place sometime roughly two generations after World War II, in what feels like a western European country trying to find its footing after the fall of a dictatorship. However, I don't believe the specific time period, or country, is ever mentioned, and this gives the book a timeless quality.
What I really loved about this book is the way magic is handled. It is instilled into every aspect of everyday life. Every mundane household task seems to be instilled with some deeper meaning and a hidden magic. Grandmother passes on important skills, life lessons, stories, and magical rituals to the main character in equal measure and we see her pick up a natural instinct for integrating magic into her life by following her grandmother's example. I don't think the word magic is actually used once in the text, the magical things that Emma experiences are described just as matter-of-factly as anything else that happens around her. In fact, in many instances the events happening in the village where Emma lives are much stranger and more unexplainable than any of the magic described.
This book was written in a very interesting style. I don't know how much was intentional and how much was due to it being a translation. Sometimes this helped me get more into the story. In many instances you really felt like you were in the head of a 12 or 13-year-old girl, getting a stream-of-consciousness view of her thoughts. There are big blocks of text, not broken up by dialogue. There are no quotation marks or line breaks for the dialogue. Emma just tells us what is said, as if it is as much a part of her own inner monologue as her own thoughts. One thing that pulled me out of the text was the repetitive sentence structure. Almost every sentence is written in an identical structure. I say..., I stop...., I go..., I run... It gets a little distracting after a while.
I would say this book is a perfect fit for someone looking for something different. I would probably suggest it to someone who likes historical fiction but wants to branch out, rather than a hard-core fantasy fan.

It doesnt support or open after I download the protected pdf version of it.

It's also not showing in my shelf in netgalley and I cant open it to read

Please look into the issue and if you can send me the pdf in my mail ID- taniagungunsarkar@gmail.com

I cant read the book from here.

Please look into the issue and deliver me the book to review properly, moreover i was pretty excited about this book

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this gifted e-ARC of The Bone Fire. I am truly grateful for the opportunity to read this title.

This is one that I struggled with a lot for various reasons. I had a lot going on in my personal life so I found it difficult to focus on this and get immersed with the story. The beginning of the novel felt bland, and this continued throughout for me as I tried to finish the book.

I do appreciate that some of the nuance of this book may have been lost with translation, but unfortunately, this book didn't work for me.

2.5 stars.

Though there was a great premise for this book, there were some problems with the execution. I think my experience would have been vastly improved had I been able to read it in the original Hungarian. There is always that possibility of losing the power of writing and context in translation and that may have been a large part of my issue here. In fact, there are some clear issues with the translation. Some pieces do not make sense and there are some obvious inconsistencies/errors in the construction of sentences. Even the title is technically incorrect. The translation of the Hungarian title to English should be Bonfire, not The Bone Fire. Though I suppose a stretch could help The Bone Fire make sense as well, I question which the author intended for the English release.

As it was presented, there were some fantastically written parts to it and I can see why Dragoman is considered a great author. The pieces come together a bit haphazardly, as if constructed in vignettes rather than a continuous plot, but things do weave together once you get a feel for the book. I did struggle to make it from beginning to end though, as I was frequently lost or confused by what exactly was happening. This could be a factor of how the book was originally written, or it could again be something of a construct caused by translation. It is very difficult to tell. Either way, this disjointed nature dragged down the pacing of the plot for me and prevented me from truly getting immersed in the story.

I did appreciate the magical realism elements to the story and wanted more explanation of these parts. There were a lot of things left hanging and I could have perhaps grown more attached to the characters and events if my understanding had been greater. This was also the case for the ending. It was apparently designed to be somewhat open ended (which I do struggle with on occasion), but it was also abrupt. There was a lot of tension and building in the last few pages of the book and then it just stopped. I honestly wondered if I wasn't missing a piece of my file (read as an e-book) until I read reviews that indicated the same issue.

I have a hard time saying I wouldn't recommend this book...for two reasons. 1. I do not have any Romanian background and don't understand the history of this region very well. This make speak much more to someone who does have that connection. 2. I don't speak Hungarian. I really think that someone who is able to read the book in its original state would be likely to enjoy it. I think that this experience may have created additional understanding in the story that would have lead me to bump my rating up by a star or more.

* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *

This is the story of a grandmother who survived WWII raising her young granddaughter. It was enjoyable to read, the little hints of magic were very special to find.

My god, that was powerful. Heartbreaking and mystical all at once--this tale weaves subtle magic into the complex history of a war-scarred country. Emma, our brave and bruised orphan, is claimed and whisked by a previously-unknown grandmother to a distant town, ravaged by revolution. Here she finds a reality shaped by magic to be her only foothold against fear, power, and confusion. – review by Janani Chinnam

i am so grateful to have read this book, it was a chilling fairy tale coming of age story that completely took me by surprise!

Have you ever started a book because you thought it was one thing and it turned out to be another? This is what happened to me with The Bone Fire and to be honest, I’m not sure what I feel about this.

I thought that The Bone Fire was a fantasy that starts in a post-revolution country (and had the impression of a portal-esque fantasy like The Book of Lost Things) but it’s actually a coming of age story with magical realism undertones.

The Bone Fire starts with Emma being taken away from the orphanage by the Grandmother she never met. I thought the Grandmother was going to be the bad guy, but that’s not the case. What we get is a dreamy, hazy narrative as Emma tries to settle down in her new town and all that she goes through. There may be magic involved, or it may be Emma trying to cope with her new surroundings and all the bullying and the fact that her grandmother is getting older and frailer.

For me, the distinguishing point of the book is the narration. It’s told in first person present tense, which has the effect of making the reader feel as though they are in Emma’s head and experiencing things from her point of view. It’s both intimate and somewhat distancing at the same time, since there’s a stream of consciousness vibe about the whole book. I don’t even think I felt empathy or identified much with Emma, because of this.

The story itself was fairly interesting but there wasn’t much point. I think because I expected a more conventional fantasy, I wanted something with a goal in mind, even if the goal shifted by the end of the book. Instead, most of the book was about Emma’s every day life and struggles, and the Big Events only happened all at once towards the end.

Overall, this was an interesting read. Writing all this out, I can see that it’s a lot more ‘literary’ than I thought going in, which was probably why I was disconnected throughout most of the book. I think that some people are going to love this, some aren’t going to connect with it at all, and some will be like me – a bit confused by the whole thing.

P.s. I think my true thoughts on this will only be known after a few months, because I need to figure out if this made a lasting impression or if I’ll forget about it after a few books.

DNFed this book around 25%. The pacing was too slow and I didn't feel pulled in to the storyline as well as I'd have liked. The characters didn't seem very solid to me.

I am a fan of both history and fantasy. So I was excited to read this book. But I couldn't connect with the characters and the plot. I DNFed it halfway. I will read it again after sometime and will update the review.

The Rough translation compared with a setting/timeframe that I had trouble relating to make this one fall short for me.

This book takes the POV of a 13 yo girl after a revolution. The topic was a bit heavy at times, and descriptive almost a bit too much, but overall a good book for those who are into fantasy and history.

So so great! To be honest I wasn’t sure what to expect. The cover and brief description were enough to entice me and I’m glad it did. Any reader whose a lover of fantasy won’t be disappointed

Thank you NetGalley. I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I loved the cover of this book, and couldn't wait to see what it was about.
The summary / blurb was on the short side and didn't give away much about the storyline honestly.
I just couldn't get into this book though. I'm not sure if maybe the translation caused it to fall flat or if it was just the writing style in general. I hate giving less than great reviews, but I just couldn't bring myself to get into this book. What a bummer.

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The Bone Fire by György Dragomán (translated by Ottilie Mulzet) looks through the eyes of a 13 year old orphan at a country after a revolution. Mr. Dragomán is an award-winning Hungarian author and a translator.

Emma is thirteen years old living in a war-torn country. After the bloodied revolution has ended, Emma found herself without family and home, until she is sent to live with the grandmother she never knew.

Grief stricken Emma learns her grandmother’s everyday magic. Through it all she has to deal with a new school, teenage drama, family secrets, and try and break a circle of never-ending grudges which usually end in blood and death.

I didn’t know anything about The Bone Fire (Máglya) by György Dragomán, however I do enjoy books from other countries and thought this would be a good one. At first I was disappointed, in general I do not enjoy stream of consciousness books, and the point of view of a thirteen year old girl is not up my alley.

In other words, not my type of book.

This book, however, grew on me quickly. The story is set in an unidentified Eastern European country, after a bloodied revolution has ended. The ascetics that the author build are fascinating, the details hidden in the shadows are the true gems for the observant reader.

Emma, the thirteen year old protagonist, world that is shattered over and over again. Her parents’ death to her grandmother’s sublime magical skills, to her own survivability. In light of the country’s turmoil, Emma finds out the “truth” has many meanings, sometimes no meaning at all. Albeit, many times it doesn’t even matter since someone else decided on what “truth” actually is – much like today’s climate. Acting on such “truths” can, nevertheless, have significant consequences even for the innocent, if there are such people in revolutions.

This book reads like a Cold War fairy-tale, of the old kind where happy endings were far and few in between. I enjoyed the surreal, and abstract world seen through the eyes of a child, forced to grow up quickly.

I thought some of the book could have used a bit of heavy handed editing, but what do I know?

*Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book for review all opinions are my own*

This book was so hard to read, I thought it would never end.
This is not a book for everyone, I think it is for a very specific audience, as i wanted to read something different I kept reading even when I didn't want to anymore.
This is not a bad book, just very different from everything I've read, it doesn't have a plot in it, it tells the story of a girl who lost her parents and goes to live with her grandmother she never met before.
We basically followed the girl's life while she is discovering the world and her grandmother's story as well as understanding the world.
For me it was a very confusing book but I can't say if it was because of the translation or the writing of the author himself.
In the end, I don't regret reading the book because even though it took me almost two weeks to finish it I actually liked it as incredible as it seems!

The Bone Fire, as far as I could tell, was a book about an orphaned girl who leaves an institute to live with her magical grandmother. The book felt very non-linear, although not very many parts of the book are told out of order. There are many parts of the book that felt almost rambly and non-sensical, making me wonder why it was even included at all. That being said, these little anecdotes about the girl's life and her grandmother's life really added to the atmosphere of the book, which was probably one of its strong points. There's nothing inherently bad about this book, just nothing about it really resonated or stuck with me. It was wonderfully written and beautifully told, but unfortunately I could never understand or connect with the plot as a whole. I think I spent the whole time waiting for something to happen and then eventually realizing nothing ever would.

As far as the translation, I didn't really see anything particularly off about it! Not like I know the native language or anything, but it was easy to understand and the cultural differences were explained or "translated" very well; the native language or culture of this book was never an obstacle to understanding it. Thank you for this advance copy!