Recommended by Miss McLaren
Home Fire opens as Isma Pasha, a young British student, is detained for three hours by airport security on her way to the US. She's guilty of that heinous contemporary crime, travelling while Muslim. As her belongings are searched, and her laptop scrutinised ('googling while Muslim' is an even worse offence), her interrogators demand 'her thoughts on Shias, homosexuals, the Queen, democracy, the Great British Bake Off, the invasion of Iraq, Israel, suicide bombers, dating websites'. Above all, they want her to answer one question - does she consider herself British?
Kamila Shamsie's novel won the 2018 Women's Prize for Fiction - you can read Ms McLaughlin's post on the prize, and review of another of the shortlisted novels here - and deservedly so. It's a novel that spans three continents, as Shamsie re-works a story from the classical past (Sophocles's Antigone) in a contemporary context, exploring themes of ethical conflict, love, loyalty and catastrophic parenting along the way.
The story centres on the children of two fathers, Adil Pasha and Karamat Lone. Pasha is a charming and feckless drifter who abandons his family in the UK to fight overseas. His absence haunts his children, the stoical, intelligent Isma, and her twin siblings - adored younger brother Parvaiz, and beautiful, subversive Aneeka. It's Aneeka with whom Isma has already practised her airport security Q&A, and who suggests 'if they ask you about the Queen, just say, "As an Asian I have to admire her colour palette." It's important to show at least a tiny bit of contempt for the whole process.' Gentle Parvaiz lacks his sister's self-possession: his yearning for the love of the father who deserted him is heart-breaking, although the steps he takes to earn it are horrifying.
Karamat Lone, on the other hand, is both doting father, and a driven and ambitious politician, who becomes Britain's first Muslim Home Security - the 'Lone Wolf. Mr British Values. Mr Strong on Security. Mr Striding Away from Muslimness', as the press put it. His pampered, privileged son Eammon lives in his father's shadow, desperate to please him but paralysed by an inability to live up to his father's achievements.
The children's lives collide and intertwine in a gripping and powerful story, full of action and drama, together with some scathing swipes at contemporary Britain and its values, and the distortions of its media, both the mainstream press and the Twittersphere. Shamsie shares the story-telling between the characters, a clever technique which allows the reader to understand them and their point of view in ways they seem incapable of understanding each other. It also means the plot takes shape by stealth - the reader has to work out what's happening, and piece things together as each character lets details slip. Even if you know the story of Antigone, or start to intuit where things are heading, you will be surprised by what happens. Shamsie never passes judgement or takes sides: you end up feeling that everyone is right - and everyone is wrong. Highly recommended.
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