"From time to time, all too rarely, there comes a novel that so exceeds my expectations of mere excellence that I am tossed into the experience of magic.

There is simply no way to explain, in terms of anything I know of conventional criticism, the power of the piece...It is a moving novel, a rich exploration of human conditions that are far deeper and broader than the specifics of time, place and culture.

Nattel is an extraordinary novelist -- an artist working diligently beyond the providence of her impressive historic and social scholarship. This book is lushly layered in its exploration of the most essential truths and ambiguities of life. And finally, as I believe all great art is, it is redeeming." (Michael Pakenham: The Baltimore Sun)

When the busy season came, there were wage packets to spend and in the Lane sunlight glinted on second, third and fourth-hand treasures...Steam rose from baked potatoes and fried fish and it was as delicious as truffles to people that ate out of a twist of newspaper in the street. Everywhere jackets and dresses hung on rails above the crowd like spirits taking in the excitement while sellers reached up with their metal poles to bring down the perfect fit.

"COATS LIKE NEW! LADIES DRESSES!"

"CORSETS MADE FROM THE BONES OF THE LEVIATHAN!"

Nehama was looking through the book seller's barrow. When she came home with a purchase, Nathan would tease her again. Another book? Who knew I married a scholar...

"COWCUMBERS. LOVELY COWCUMBERS!"

"FINE WARNUTS, ALL CRACKED!"

Pious Pearl the beigel lady sat on a crate like an empress surrounded by her sacks of beigels. She wore a shawl over her head because bonnets were for the rich and at her feet there was a zinc pail with coke embers to keep her warm. "A blessing on you, Missus. You should live till a hundred and twenty. And what's wrong with you, Mister, that you don't buy nothing of an old woman? May all your limbs wither. May your teeth rot."

"And how about a blessing for me?" Nehama asked.

"Maybe yes, maybe no. You'll take..."

"A dozen," Nehama said.

For further discussion on The Signing Fire please visit here

"By turns earthy and lyrical, The Singing Fire authoritatively conjures up the fog- and smoke-filled breath of London, and at the same time it's steeped in an atmosphere of mystery, reaching for soaring, transcendental truths...I must confess, I wept unabashedly more than once as I raced through this fine novel." (Elaine Kalman Naves, The Globe and Mail)

"Nattel has so many strengths as a writer that it's tempting just to list them: a historian's eye for detail and language, a storyteller's mastery of rhythm and suspense, a modern woman's sympathic understanding for those who've preceded her." (Nancy Wigston, The Toronto Star)

"Marvelous...vibrant... [R]ich in humor that's never simply for laughs...and filled with passages of heartbreaking beauty that acknowledges the permanent scars left by tragedy but affirm the healing powers of love and self-knowledge. Beautifully written, strongly imagined, and deeply felt. (Kirkus)

"Think Isaac Bashevis Singer, Charles Dickens, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez and you will have some idea of the scope of literary influences behind...The Singing Fire....Like Dickens, Nattel convincingly describes the tenements, streets, food, smells, clothes, working conditions and what passed for leisure in Londons' East End...Nattels' rich characterizations...are enough to make you weep."(Mary Soderstrom, Quill & Quire)