FICTION
Home Fire
Kamila Shamsie
First Published: August, 2017
Language: English
Pages: 264, Hardcover
‘Home Fire’ is essentially a story about love and the lengths we go to for those we hold dear. A contemporary reimaging of Antigone, a tragedy written by Sophocles in or before 441 BC, Home Fire explores what happens when love and loyalty are pitted against each other. Shamsie, who has previously written six novels, has based Home Fire on two Pakistani emigrant families from completely different communities in London. On one side of the spectrum is the devout Isma Pasha, daughter of a jihadi fighter, and then there’s Eamonn Lone, son of the British Home Secretary who is a secularized Muslim.
Eamonn’s family has the power to save Pasha’s family from a horrible fate and that’s what Aneeka, Isma’s sister, initially has in mind when she initiates a relationship with Eamonn. Aneeka wants Eamonn to help bring her twin, Parvaiz, back to London.
Narrated through the perspectives of five different people, Home Fire that tells the haunting tale of what happens when love and politics collide was longlisted for the 2017 Man Booker Prize.
Review by APEX BUREAU
