Four Fires is a novel written by Bryce Courtenay. It was first published in 2001. The title is derived from a quote : There are four fires of our dreaming The bushfire of our land's renewal The war fire of good men killing The soul fire of a different God The fires of a consuming love The novel focuses on the Maloney family, who live in country Victoria. It also deals with many major events and issues in Australian history, as seen through the eyes of, or experienced by, the Maloneys. These include feminism, bushfires and PTSD. The story covers a time period from the late 1940s to 1999. The... Maloney family live in a Victorian town, Yankalillee, in the Wangaratta-Wodonga area. The family is in many ways dysfunctional, but they are also fiercely loyal to each other and their friends and supporters. They start the novel far down the social ladder, but strive to rise up it, in spite of those who seek to keep them down. Tommy; a descendant of Irish Catholic convicts, he is technically the head of the family, although only two of the children were fathered by him.
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