The Stars Are Fire by Anita Shreve

Grace lives in Maine in a small town in a small house where she raises her two young children and takes care of her husband - a typical housewife in the late 1940's. Her only respite is the time she spends with her friend's house and that is fleeting. When a massive fire takes over the town she flees with her friend ,a buggy and the children. The husbands have left to fight the fire and there is no time to grab anything in the house. Desperate, Grace flees to the ocean and makes them all lie in the freezing water. She saves them all but loses the child she was carrying. Assuming that her unaccounted husband is dead and nothing left, she takes the family to her mother in law's vacant house and starts fresh. With each small step Grace begins to come in to herself and becomes more self confident each day. Until something happens that no one saw coming. This brilliant story starts quietly but just like the fire that started her transformation, it ignites and burns deep into your soul.