I quite literally started reading Kamila Shamsie’s new novel an hour after it came flying through my letterbox. I had pre-ordered it a few weeks ago when the Booker longlist was announced, and had forgotten it was due to arrive. Having previously read all of Kamila Shamsie’s other novels (though not her non-fiction) I was very eager to get started. I flew through it in two days.
Home Fire is quite simply an extraordinary novel, absolutely essential reading for the times in which we are living. It is a novel about love, and the sacrifices we make in the name of that love, and what happens when loyalties and politics come up against each other. It has been described as a modern re-imagining of the 5th century play Antigone. Whether you know anything about Antigone or not probably doesn’t matter – I didn’t really, so looked it up before I started reading, after which I did have some idea of what might happen in Home Fire – so, perhaps I would have been better not doing that. Still none of that spoilt my enjoyment of the novel which could easily make my end of year list. It is a novel about divided loyalties, politics and extremism, beautifully written, poignant and important, it is a novel for the messed-up world in which we currently find ourselves – with a final scene so shockingly memorable it will leave you gasping.
“The interrogation continued for nearly two hours. He wanted to know her thoughts on Shias, homosexuals, the Queen, democracy, the Great British Bake Off, the invasion of Iraq, Israel, suicide bombers, dating websites.”
As the novel opens Isma is undergoing an exhausting interrogation as she leaves the UK for America where she is going to study. It was an interrogation she had expected and prepared for. Several years earlier, Isma had been studying under a Dr Hira Shah, but when her mother died, nineteen-year-old Isma gave up her studies to bring up her twelve-year-old siblings, twins Aneeka and Pervaiz. Now, finally it is Isma’s time, the twins are now nineteen, and Dr Shah has persuaded Isma to take up her studies in Massachusetts where she is now teaching. The interrogation at an end, Isma finally makes her flight – albeit a later one – and arrives in America to be greeted by her old mentor. It’s hard for Isma to shake off the responsibility she has had so long for her siblings, she still has worries, particularly about Pervaiz.
“That had been the only time she had truly, purely missed her brother without adjectives such as ‘ungrateful’ and ‘selfish’ slicing through the feeling of loss. Now she looked at his name on the screen, her mouth forming prayers to keep Aneeka from logging on, the adjectives thick in her mind. Aneeka must learn to think of him as lost for ever. It was possible to do this with someone you loved, Isma had learnt that early on. But you could only learn it if there was a complete vacuum where the other person had been.”
Back in England, Aneeka is cheering her sister on – they talk frequently by skype from Aunty Naseem’s house across the road from the family home which is now rented out. Pervaiz is absent – they don’t talk about him, but Isma watches the skype window anxiously for his name to appear. We soon learn that Pervaiz has gone to Syria – following a dream, to follow in the footsteps of the Jihadist father he never knew – and of whom the family never speak. As the novel progresses we get a sense of how friends and family members both at home and in Pakistan, are terrified to have themselves associated with jihadists, afraid for their families, for their children, their marriage prospects their visa applications. Pervaiz is a young man who we gradually come to see as being terribly lost, a boy obsessed with recording and collecting sounds, he has felt the lack of a father in his life quite acutely, surrounded by women, his mother, grandmother and sisters – and with family life changing yet again, he is ripe for manipulation.
“He had always watched boys and their fathers with an avidity composed primarily of hunger. Whenever any of those fathers had made a certain gesture towards him – a hand placed on the back of his neck, the word ‘son’, an invitation to a football match – he’d retreat, both ashamed and afraid in a jumbled way that only grew more so as the years passed and the world of girls and boys grew more separate, so there were times he was not a twin to a twin but rather the only male in a house that knew all the secrets that women shared with on another but none that fathers taught their son.”
In America Isma takes an apartment, begins her new life in the midst of a bitterly cold winter, she starts to frequent a local coffee shop. Here she sees a familiar face – though it belongs to a young man she has never met. Eamonn Lone, the son of a rising politician, he is from a world of London privilege vastly different to that of Isma and her siblings. Born into a Muslim family, Eamonn’s father Karamat Lone, married to a non-Muslim American designer, has rejected certain aspects of his heritage. Karamat is now frequently outspoken about the integration of British Muslim’s into British life – his son’s name anglicised from Ayman to Eamonn as if to prove how far his family have integrated. Eamonn is a very handsome, charming young man, four years younger than Isma, the two become coffee shop friends, and Isma even feels comfortable enough to tell him about her father.
Eamonn returns to England, and pays a visit to Aneeka and Aunty Naseem, bringing a gift from Isma and is soon drawn further into the family he had heard so much about while in the US. His father has just been made Home Secretary, surrounded by intense security, immediately implementing some controversial policies – it isn’t long before #LoneWolf is trending on Twitter.
To say much more at this point would be to risk spoilers, and I want you all to read this book.
Home Fire, is compelling, intense and fully deserving of its place on the Man Booker longlist.
This is the first Shamsie I have read, very powerful, very pertinent and hooks from the start. Great review. I’m so behind on my reviewing. The like almost matches the TBR!
So glad you enjoyed it too. I shall look out for your review. You’re right about how pertinent it feels.
I hadn’t realised that Antigone was an influence on this novel and not having read any Shamsie hadn’t been particularly bothered – but I now am – I’m dying to know what happens after you leave us on tenterhooks!
Good, 😁 I’m glad you want to read it. I think you would really enjoy it.
I did quick read Antigone, but didn’t find it too revealing, there are still enough surprises and it’s a novel that pulls the reader in so quickly, there isn’t really the time to project how that connection might play out. I loved it and I’ve got a few of her back list to read now. Great review!
Absolutely there are still plenty of surprises so looking it up didn’t really spoil anything. Of Shamsie’s backlist I particularly recommend Broken Verses and Burnt Shadows. Although I have very much enjoyed everything of hers I have read.
Excellent review! I’ve not read any Shamsie before, but this seems as good a place to start as any. I think I once saw a performance of Antigone but the basics are fuzzy in my mind; I probably wouldn’t try to refresh my memory before reading this. It sounds like it has quite the climax — like Elmet.
Oh yes, a marvellous climax. Such a good writer I would recommend all her novels.
Sounds fascinating, will look for it.
Good, it’s a great book.
Glad to know you loved it. I did not pick it up since I have not read Kamila Shamsie previously. But I have been hearing such high praises about the book. I need to squeeze this in.
Yes it does appear to be getting a lot of positive reviews which I am delighted to see. I do think Kamila Shamsie is a very good writer so I was pleased to see her making the Booker longlist this year.
I enjoyed Burnt Shadows some years back. I have just placed Home Fire on order at my library on account of your review. It seems to be available so I won’t have long to wait.
Ooh good, really hope you enjoy it. Let me know.😁
I read A God in Every Stone a few years ago and enjoyed it, but it’s still the only Kamila Shamsie novel I’ve read. I’ll have to think about reading this one next – it sounds great.
Yes, I enjoyed A God in Every Stone too, though it’s not my favourite of hers. Hope you do read this one.
Great review Ali, and this sounds very powerful and pertinent to the nasty word we live in. I’ll definitely keep an eye out for it.
Yes absolutely, and the other thing Shamsie does is to remind us that behind the screaming headlines of treachery there are real people, real families.
This sounds very powerful. It’s on my TBR. I’m glad you liked it so much, that makes me more eager to read it.
I’m sure you will enjoy it, glad you’re keen on reading it. It is a powerful novel I think.
Oh I wish I’d packed this book for my holiday now! The Patriots isn’t working me – thank goodness I packed a just-in-case Jane Austen.
At least I have this one to look forward to when I get back 😊
Something to look forward to, will look out for your thoughts after you read it.
[…] soon as the new novel from Kamila Shamsie arrived I had to start it right away. Home Fire has been longlisted for this year’s Booker prize, and for one will be very disappointed if it […]
I saw you mentioned which one is not your favourite, but did I overlook the part where you said which one *is*? Or, were you hoping not to choose between the two you seem to favour? I’ve got this general idea of wanting to read all of hers myself. but your thoughts on this one’s relevance to present-day politics does have me leaning in its direction…
Oh yes I really liked all her novels , this one might be my favourite now. Burnt Shadows and Broken Verses are brilliant. The City by the sea might be my least favourite. This one is so good though go with it for now, and it’s a pretty quick read.
[…] widely reviewed in the press as well as in the blogging world (A life in books, Elle Thinks, and Heavenali), generally very […]
Sounds amazing.. I need to add it to my tbr list
I read it after your review because it sounded great….
Man! Was it gripping!! I didn’t even put it down for a second… Read the whole thing in one go…
Thanks for the awesome review that made me find such a great book 💖
So glad you enjoyed it.
I agree, I think it is a must-read for our times. I really, really like it when authors grapple with contemporary issues like this. It’s the best kind of LitFic there is.
[…] See also Nancy’s thoughts at Nancy Elin at Ali’s at Heaven Ali. […]
[…] If you’d like to read another review of Home Fire, Claire over at Word by Word has reviewed it here and Heavenali here. […]