Home Fire - BOOKS.HCCP.ORG

Published Aug. 24, 2017 by Riverhead Books.

ISBN:: 9780735217683

(1 review)

Isma is free. After years spent raising her twin siblings in the wake of their mother's death, she is finally studying in America, resuming a dream long deferred. But she can't stop worrying about Aneeka, her beautiful, headstrong sister back in London - or their brother, Parvaiz, who's disappeared in pursuit of his own dream: to prove himself to the dark legacy of the jihadist father he never knew.

Then Eamonn enters the sisters' lives. Handsome and privileged, he inhabits a London worlds away from theirs. As the son of a powerful British Muslim politician, Eamonn has his own birthright to live up to - or defy. Is he to be a chance at love? The means of Parvaiz's salvation? Two families' fates are inextricably, devastatingly entwined in this searing novel that asks: what sacrifices will we make in the name of love?

A contemporary reimagining of Sophocles' Antigone, Home …

Isma is free. After years spent raising her twin siblings in the wake of their mother's death, she is finally studying in America, resuming a dream long deferred. But she can't stop worrying about Aneeka, her beautiful, headstrong sister back in London - or their brother, Parvaiz, who's disappeared in pursuit of his own dream: to prove himself to the dark legacy of the jihadist father he never knew.

Then Eamonn enters the sisters' lives. Handsome and privileged, he inhabits a London worlds away from theirs. As the son of a powerful British Muslim politician, Eamonn has his own birthright to live up to - or defy. Is he to be a chance at love? The means of Parvaiz's salvation? Two families' fates are inextricably, devastatingly entwined in this searing novel that asks: what sacrifices will we make in the name of love?

A contemporary reimagining of Sophocles' Antigone, Home Fire is an urgent, fiercely compelling story of loyalties torn apart when love and politics collide - confirming Kamila Shamsie as a master storyteller of our times.

1 edition

emma reviewed Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie

Difficult but intelligent

4 stars

Content warning Content warning

The combination of Antigone, the psychological and physical abuse of jihadi grooming, and the horrors of present day UK media, social media and politics makes for a difficult read.

I heard Kamila Shamsie on Krishnan Guru-Murthy's "Ways to Change the World" podcast, thought she was very intelligent and articulate, and went to see what the library's e-book system had from her. This was the only offering unfortunately. Shamsie is indeed intelligent and articulate and her writing ability makes the rawness of the book's difficult combination bearable.

I feel ill-equipped to comment on the content. It's her lane.