Kamila Shamsie

A pretty special reinterpretation of Antigone.

We begin in Massachusetts with Isma, in place of Ismene, a British PhD student from northern London who falls for a boy with Pakistani heritage and perfect British manners. His name is Eamon, to highlight his Irish heritage. Antigone readers will know something is wrong here. Ismene is Antigone's sister, and Heamon is Antigone's fiancé. There is no relationship between Ismene and Heamon. But what follows is a kind of beautiful set of chapters on show more Isma, Eamon and Isma's sister Aneeka (our Antigone).

(To lay out some plot essentials: Aneeka has a twin brother who join ISIS! Eamon's dad is an ambitious English politician who has managed his Pakistani heritage by becoming extra extra British. Eamon's mom is Irish. The plot pivots on this reputation-sensitive Pakistani British politician learning of the relationship between his son, Eamon, and a sibling of an Islamic terrorist.)

This is bold but successful relocation of mythical Thebes morality into contemporary British colonial legacy concerns of race, Islamophobia, terrorism. And a transformation of ancient Classical Greek theatric love to its contemporary meanings. The key elements of Antigone are here, and as is the dynamic of English colonial history. I found this take beautiful and, if a little predictable in certain elements, mostly fresh and thought-provoking.

2025
https://www.librarything.com/topic/375106#9035774 show less

In a year when there are many historical novels about World War I and its repercussions, Kamila Shamsie’s latest book stands out for several reasons. One is the high quality of Shamsie’s writing. Another is that the focus is very different – not just the fighting in Western Europe or the home front, but the impact of the war, and its aftermath, way beyond Europe, specifically in the area of British-ruled India around Peshawar (some years before Partition and the creation of Pakistan as show more a separate country). Shamsie is from Pakistan but has lived in Britain for the last few years, and so this isn’t just a historical novel written by a Westerner and set somewhere exotic – I do enjoy some of those but it’s interesting to read something with more substance.

On a trip to an ancient archaeological site in Turkey in summer 1914, Vivian begins to look at a family friend in a new light. Her friendship with Tahsin Bey seems to be developing into an unspoken romantic understanding. Then the travellers receive news of the war in Europe, and Vivian has a telegram from her father – she must find a way to travel home immediately, with just a whispered promise from Tahsin Bey: “When the war ends, Vivian Rose”. Back in London she works as a VAD (volunteer nurse) for a few months, before setting off to Peshawar to see an ancient archaeological treasure, and hoping to meet Tahsin Bey.

There is plenty to explore there, but there is also simmering conflict between Indian nationalist aspirations and the repressive society of the British in India – the British take a dim view of a young woman wanting to lead archaeological expeditions with the local Pathan people. She returns to London but not before forming a lasting friendship.

Qaayum Gul is one of many Indian men who fought in Europe, and this novel is as much his story as Viv’s. They meet on the train to Peshawar in 1915, and then again in 1930 when Vivian returns.

World War I was a war which affected the whole world, in an era when so much of Asia and Africa was divided up between European powers and precarious empires. There is so much new to me historical background here that it gave me a whole list of things – places, events etc – I needed to look up. Shamsie doesn't lay everything out as chunks of fact that can really interfere with some historical novels, but her book is clearly informed by historical research and perspectives.

A fascinating and thought provoking story – this is the first Kamila Shamsie book I’ve read but I really must get to all her previous books very very soon. show less

In 1988 Karachi, two 14 year olds have been best of friends for a decade. Zahra is academically brilliant, and solidly middle class. Maryam will inherit the Khan Leather empire. Thirty one years later, they both live in London. Still very different. Still best of friends.

Enduring friendship

“Perhaps that was the key to the longevity of childhood friendships - all those shared subtexts that no one else could discern… You weren’t tied by blood, or profession.”

My oldest friendships go show more back to when we were 11. Our teen years in a repressive setting (boarding school) in the early 1980s have some similarities with those of Maryam and Zahra. Decades later, a handful of us are still best of friends. The “shared subtexts” are a shorthand and a bond.

“The problem with childhood friendships was that you could sometimes fail to see the adult in front of you.”
My friends and I are all recognisably the same people: we have experienced and learned a lot, but really we have just grown into ourselves: the adult is not so very different from the teen. I find that reassuring. Most importantly, we’re still connected, even when we’re far apart geographically, and don’t see each other for several months.

Image: “Landscape Sculpture” by Barbara Hepworth, 1944. I love the curves and colours, but note the wires connecting across the distance. (Source)

Disappointing

Having enjoyed Home Fire (see my review HERE), my expectations of this were high.

Unfortunately, most of the first half felt like a competent novel for 14 year olds: puberty, parties, boys, exams, parental rules, “girlfear”, marking the dirty bits in racy novels, and lustful interior monologues, with nothing very original beyond its location and time of political flux (General Zia murdered and Benazhir Bhutto elected).

Towards the end of the first half, the naïve recklessness of teens leads to a scary and unforgettable situation.

They, and their friendship, survive. The second half provides some catch-up via a mock Guardian interview with Zahra. After that, it self-consciously checks too many contemporary issues: lesbian parenthood, trial by social media, a fleeting trans character, dot com venture capital, safety versus privacy, CCTV and facial recognition, inter-racial relationships, corruption in high places, immigration and refugees, sexting, and, obviously, racism and patriarchy.

Repercussions of that evening more than thirty years ago unexpectedly confront them afresh. This could have been powerful and insightful, but the essence of what tied and divided Zahra and Maryam was lost in the noise. So much for subtext.

Image: Consequences rebounding from the past made me think of tsunamis, earthquakes, and continental drift - specifically, divergence (Source)

“Zahra all straight lines and Maryam all curves, adding another element to their study in contrasts.”
Maybe structuring it like two different novels, for different readers, was a literary device to echo the differences between Zahra and Maryam. Maybe.

Quotes

• “In a nation of oppression and losses cricket was a blazing light.”

• “Justice isn’t gentle, but it is necessary.”

• “When you’re achingly middle class, the racist shit of your childhood is largely metaphorical.”

• “Meeting schoolfriends… after a gap of many years was a constant interplay between familiarity and strangeness.” show less

Stunning. Kamila Shamsie has crammed a novel of great scope, beauty and significance into less than four hundred pages.

I'm surprised that several reviewers have suggested that the start was the least impressive part, whilst I liked the whole book it was the opening section, set in Nagasaki on the day the atom bomb was dropped, that I found most breathtaking. She manages to create something beautiful out of a horrific event. I particularly liked the idea of hiding notebooks whose cosmopolitan show more content would not have been approved of by the Japanese authorities by attaching them to a tree:

"He remains certain that no one will ever think to enter the deserted garden to search for treachery amidst the leaves. The people who would willingly sift through every particle of dust in a house for signs of anti-state activity can always be deceived by a simple act of imagination." show less