Christy Lefteri interviewed by Peter Stott

International bestselling author of The Beekeeper of Aleppo Christy Lefteri talks about her new novel, The Book of Fire, the story of a family devastated by a fire on a tiny Greek island.

Irini, Tasso and their daughter Chara’s lives are devastated when one man starts a fire out of greed and indifference. Many are killed, homes go up in flames and the island’s natural beauty is destroyed. Chara bears deep physical scars across her arms and back from the fire, Tasso is traumatised because he was not there when his family needed him, and Irini is crippled by guilt at her part in the fate of the man who started the fire. Lefteri explores the damage caused by human folly and our powers of redemption and renewal.

‘The Book of Fire is a wonderfully engrossing and moving novel that explores with great tenderness the need for answers in the face of terrible loss and the desire for recovery from environmental devastation.’ Peter Stott, author of Hot Air

Lefteri is a lecturer in creative writing at Brunel University. The Beekeeper of Aleppo sold more than a million copies and won the Aspen Literary Prize for a work of fiction that illuminates a vital contemporary issue. It was turned into a stage play that toured nationally. Here she talks to Professor Peter Stott, a science fellow in climate attribution at the Met Office’s Hadley Centre, professor in detection and attribution at the University of Exeter and author of Hot Air: The Inside Story of the Battle Against Climate Change Denial.