Book review of The Old Fire by Elisa Shua Dusapin

The Old Fire, written by Elisa Shua Dusapin with a graceful translation by Aneesa Abbas Higgins, reminded this reviewer of Jhumpa Lahiri’s masterful Whereabouts. Both are brief books where nothing much happens—yet a lot happens.

Set in the French countryside, The Old Fire follows two sisters, Agathe and Véra, as they sort out their childhood home after the death of their father. Their mother is still alive but not part of their lives. Agathe, a screenwriter, lives in America, is in a wobbly relationship and is recovering from a miscarriage on top of it. Véra is mute and communicates with her sister via their smartphones, even when they’re in the same room. No one (but Véra?) knows whether the muteness that struck her when she was a child was by choice or the result of some chemical change in her brain. Agathe, the narrator, contemplates how she both loves and resents her sister. She’s been Véra’s protector, but she wonders if they would have even been friends had they not been related.

One of the pleasures of this slender but well-written book is the author’s focus on the quotidian. The mysterious Véra may not be able or inclined to speak, but she knows how to cook. You’ll salivate over Dusapin’s descriptions of the regional cuisine. Agathe studies a line of ants on the floor. Hunters tramp heedlessly around the property, and Véra gets stung by bees who’ve built a hive behind some French doors. (The shock and pain make her scream.) The “old fire” refers to a long-ago conflagration in a pigeonnier that killed many of the birds. Octave, a neighbor who Agathe had a crush on as a girl—and may still have a crush on—helps the sisters dispose of their furnishings. At one point Agathe thinks she sees Véra whisper something to Octave’s stepdaughter.

The book ends as quietly as it begins. The hunters don’t shoot anyone by accident, the pigeonnier doesn’t collapse on Agathe, stalactites don’t fall on anyone’s head during a visit to a cave. All the big drama happened in the past, but it still informs everything in this intriguing and surprising book.