Abstract
Told from the points of view of a mother and daughter, Fire and Air tells the story of a Belgian and Dutch family who flee to Canada to escape the Second World War, only to have the past catch up to them. Ten-year-old Elly Verkest is a first-generation immigrant to Canada. Her father, Gaston, is one of the many Belgians who moved to the country after the Second World War, and her mother, Mina, is from Zundert, a small town in the Netherlands. When Gaston goes on one of his trips to his hometown of Flanders, he doesn’t come back.