Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
Kamila Shamsie’s 2017 novel Home Fire won the 2018 Women’s Fiction Prize, was longlisted for the Man Book Prize and short-listed for the SSC Prize for South Asian literature. These well-deserved accolades acknowledge Shamshie’s poetic prose and skilled storytelling. ‘Home Fire’ is intense and intimate as the story explores identity, secrets, immigration, ambition, love, and family loyalty. Shamsie’s writing is evocative, the characters complex and the suspense slowly builds toward a stunning ending.
The story is about two British Pakistani families navigating their Muslim identity in a post-9/11 world. Each of the characters is bound to their family by love and loyalty. And yet, each holds a different perspective about expressing that identity in a world that discriminates and demonizes Muslims. Sophocles’ play ‘Antigone’ serves as the basis for this book, and echoes of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ permeate the plot.
The novel begins in 2005 and takes place in England, America, Syria, Istanbul and Pakistan. Three siblings, Isma, Parvaiz and Aneeka, were raised by their mother in Wembley, England. Their father, a famous jihadist, was captured and died in Afghanistan, and his family has been under constant surveillance by the British. When the siblings’ mother and grandmother died within a year, the oldest daughter Isma raised her younger brother Parvaiz and sister Aneeka. When Parvaiz is in his teens, he struggles to find his identity. ISIS members recruit him to become a jihadist like his father and he leaves England for the Middle East. Soon Parvaiz regrets his decision.
His sister Aneeka works to free Parvaiz from ISIS’s grip. When Aneeka meets Eamonn, the influential British Home Secretary’s sophisticated son, she initiates a relationship with him. Eamonn and Aneeka fall in love, or so one might think. Maybe Eamonn’s father could help save Parvaiz. But in his political speeches, Eamonn’s father implores his fellow Muslim citizens to assimilate into British culture. He says, “I hate the Muslims who make people hate Muslims.”
The plot thickens: the assimilationist Home Secretary’s son and the sister of a jihadist are in a relationship. The fates of both families are now intertwined. Each of the three siblings, Eamonn and Eamonn’s father, each take turns narrating the story. This structure provides constantly shifting points of view. Readers must determine who and what to believe about each character’s choices. All people have multiple motivations.
Home Fire is an intellectual and emotional experience. In these times of increasing nationalism and simple generalizations about ethnic or religious groups, Kamila Shamsie’s characterizations cause readers to grasp how political passions tyrannize individual lives. Highly recommend. 4.5/5