Kamila Shamsie is the author of several previous novels, including Broken Verses and Burnt Shadows. She has been a finalist for the Man Booker Prize, the Orange Prize (twice) and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, among other honors, and has been named one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She was raised in Karachi and lives in London.
"Ingenious and love-struck ... Home Fire takes flight. ... Shamsie
drives this gleaming machine home in a manner that, if I weren't
handling airplane metaphors, I would call smashing. ... Builds to
one of the most memorable final scenes I've read in a novel this
century." --New York Times "[U]rgent and explosive ... near perfect
... a difficult book to put down." --NPR
"[A] haunting novel, full of dazzling moments and not a few
surprising turns...Home Fire blazes with the kind of annihilating
devastation that transcends grief." --Washington Post "Achingly
good...[and] shrewdly subversive." --The New York Times Book Review
"This wrenching, thought-provoking novel races to a shattering
climax."--People Magazine "A Greek tragedy for the age of ISIS ...
spare as a fable yet intensely intimate." --Vogue "A
thought-provoking commentary on loyalty, love, justice, politics,
terrorism, religion, and family." --Buzzfeed "Elegant and intense,
Kamila Shamsie's seventh novel asks timeless questions about love
for and loyalty to family and ideology -- and you won't be able to
put it down until you reach its unforgettable ending... it's safe
to say this is Shamsie at her best." --Shondaland.com "Pitch
perfect...We can expect more great work from this audaciously
talented author." --New York Journal of Books
"Her last, perfect word serves as a contemporary, against-all-odds,
global prayer... Shamsie's latest is a compelling, stupendous
stand-out to be witnessed, honored, and deeply
commended."--Christian Science Monitor
"A cross-continental novel about civil disobedience that tackles
political and emotional matters with equal assurance." --Time
Magazine
"Shamsie's timely fiction probes the roots of radicalism and the
pull of the family." --O, the Oprah Magazine "A blaze of identity,
family, nationalism, and Sophocles' Antigone." --Vanity Fair
"Stunning...every fall reader who picks this up will be mesmerized
by Shamsie's enchanting prose--and they'll definitely fall in love
with these unforgettable characters."--Redbook Magazine
"So good that it will break your heart."--WAMC, "The
Roundtable"
"An absorbing and incisive study of race and roots, attachment and
affiliation -- to a cause, a country, a person, a family -- which
encompasses five fascinatingly divergent viewpoints... timely and
incendiary." --Minneapolis Star-Tribune
"All of Shamsie's novels are deeply moving and morally complex,
leading to the kind of rich reading experience most of us hope for
in every novel we pick up. Her newest has all of that and more."
--San Francisco Chronicle "Astonishingly accomplished, melding
classic story with text messages and contemporary headlines, and
Shamsie makes every devastatingly unknown compassionately known."
--St. Louis Post-Dispatch "Shamsie's newest bestseller unpacks the
controversial subjects of love, humanity, and extremism with due
care." --Brit + Co "Intelligent, phenomenally plotted, and
eminently readable." --Bitch
"Remarkable... [an] engrossing work of literature, one not only
important to current political conversation, but also that holds
timeless truths and a story that never grows old." --Chicago Review
of Books "Shamsie's prose is, as always, elegant and evocative.
Home Fire pulls off a fine balancing act: it is a powerful
exploration of the clash between society, family and faith in the
modern world, while tipping its hat to the same dilemma in the
ancient one." --The Guardian
"Home Fire is about love, loyalty, and sacrifice -- and it makes
the headlines we read every day hit home in a way that will inspire
any reader to fight for what's right." --Bustle "Shamise's
incredibly moving story addresses the conflict between what we feel
to be right versus what the law tells us is right, and what we will
sacrifice in the name of family." --Real Simple "Engrossing... The
timely novel--critically hailed on both sides of the Atlantic, and
long-listed for the prestigious Man Booker Prize--engages questions
of bigotry, nationalism and national identity."--Pittsburgh City
Paper "[A] powerful story of the complexities of love, family and
state in wartime ...timely and tragic, with an unforgettable
ending." --BBC.com
"Home Fire is Shamsie's seventh and most accomplished novel. The
emotionally compelling plot is well served by her lucid
storytelling, and she digs into complex issues with confidence...
As this deftly constructed page-turner moves swiftly toward its
inevitable conclusion, it forces questions about what sacrifice you
would make for family, for love." --BookPage
"It's only 250-odd pages, but Home Fire feels sprawling, almost
epic...This is sensitive material, and Shamsie is aware of the
nuances. She doesn't let anyone off the hook...powerful." --The
Daily Telegraph
"Remarkable ...a provocative work which will inspire the admiration
of many but may at the same time infuriate readers expecting a more
black and white depiction of terrorists versus non-terrorists,
Muslims versus non-Muslims, the role of the state versus the rights
of the civilian. It takes a brave writer to tackle these subjects
in such a nuanced fashion and a fearless one to recognise that
there is enough blame for all parties." --The Irish Times
"Moving and thought-provoking." --The Millions, Most Anticipated
"An Odyssey of the imagination ... incredibly convincing." --BBC
Radio 4
"Gut-wrenching and undeniably relevant to today's world... In
accessible, unwavering prose and without any heavy-handedness,
Shamsie addresses an impressive mix of contemporary issues, from
Muslim profiling to cultural assimilation and identity to the
nuances of international relations. This shattering work leaves a
lasting emotional impression."--Booklist, starred
"Memorable...salient and heartbreaking, culminating in a shocking
ending."--Publisher's Weekly "Two-time Orange Prize nominee Shamsie
(A God in Every Stone) has written an explosive novel with big
questions about the nature of justice, defiance, and love."
--Kirkus Reviews "One pays it the highest compliment one can pay
fiction; it makes you think. Uncomfortably." --The Times
"utterly contemporary and deeply original too." --The Standard
"Home Fire is everything literary fiction should be -- an exciting,
beautiful, profound novel of lasting value that deserves laurels."
--The Spectator "Propulsive and unfailingly elegant... [Shamsie's]
brave and brilliant novel strongly suggests that the only way to
counter hate-filled fundamentalism is with a fundamentalism of
love." --Sunday Times "Home Fire left me awestruck, shaken, on the
edge of my chair, filled with admiration for her courage and
ambition." --Peter Carey, Booker Prize-winning author of Oscar and
Lucinda "Shamsie's simple, lucid prose plays in perfect harmony
with the heartbeat of modern times. Home Fire deftly reveals all
the ways in which the political is as personal as the personal is
political. No novel could be as timely." --Aminatta Forna, author
of The Memory of Love "A searing novel about the choices people
make for love, and for the place they call home." --Laila Lalami,
Pulitzer Prize finalist for The Moor's Account "A good novelist
blurs the imaginary line between us and them; Kamila Shamsie is the
rare writer who makes one forget there was ever such a thing as a
line. Home Fire is a remarkable novel, both timely and necessary."
--Rabih Alameddine, author of An Unnecessary Woman
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