The mythological connection weakens the story, especially the ending. Without saying what the ending is, I think it's a cop out to have a single climactic moment rather than following characters as they deal with the real-world, complex complications of the decisions that people have made.
That's a movie move, not a novel move. There are missed opportunities between characters, conversations and interactions I expected them to have but are instead skipped, glossed over, or deemed not important.
Isma and Aneeka should have had a huge fight about one plot element, and I felt like the connection between Isma and Eamonn's father had a lot of potential and it just dissipates. I would like to read more by this author, although I personally don't feel this is strong enough to make the Booker shortlist. Too many dropped plot points, a lack of realism at crucial moments, and the unevenness in genre and story arcs. I did appreciate the deep thinking it inspired, and it ended up having enough in it to count as one of the reads for my Borders challenge.
View all 13 comments. Jan 21, s. From simply updating to a modern setting to different points of view to recast the story in new light or toying with a story until it is almost unrecognizable. This book is just gorgeously written and hits all the right notes of anxieties, love, betrayal, and the heroism of one girl standing in defiance to the State.
Things are going well for the family until the young brother becomes radicalized and joins an extremist army and suddenly the powder keg of racial tensions is lit and ready to blow. What better choice for a racial discussion of a modern day Thebes than London, particularly as Home Fire was written and released during the tensions of failed Brexit deals and rising nationalism around the world.
This is similar to the recent film adaptation with Romeo and Juliet being Palestinian and Israeli as an effective way to let modern world traumas form the exposition of tension between the rivals in classic works. Through Shamsie's perfect poetic prose, this update signs with all the strength of a classic yet feels so comfortably embedded in the present.
The story opens with a tense airport questioning where oldest sister Isma knows any answer not deemed good enough will put an end to her university studies in America, an end to her much desired freedom, and create problems for her already on-the-radar family. For Isma, this aspect of identity is all consuming. Freedom is also a desire of her younger sister, Aneeka, who resists patriarchal society. For their brother, however, he is more driven by a desire to fulfill his father's legacy and be thought of as a man.
As a younger, rising star in Parliment, Lone used his Muslim heritage to win his base, whom he promptly discarded upon achieving real power. British Values.
Strong on Security. Striding Away from Muslim-ness. When the inevitable happens, suddenly there is a dispute over if a body can cross borders for burial and both families are enveloped in scandal. Familial love and romantic love are the beating heart pumping this story along.
For, unbeknownst to Karamat, his son Eamonn has been having a hidden relationship with Aneeka and now their personal lives are the talk of the media. With love, however, there is always the risk of betrayal. Through the rotating perspectives, we witness the relationship from multiple angles that keep you guessing if it is authentic or for political gain for Aneeka, while also watching Isma feel betrayed by her sister for sleeping with Eamonn when she had her eye on him in America, and by her brother for his actions.
There is also the betrayal of your adoptive country who is quick to turn on you and label you a terrorist. Each new perspective expands the drama and also illuminates previously unlit corners of earlier events as Shamsie brilliantly fleshes out the story in a way that keeps it fresh in tone, voice and actions.
What translates best in this adaptation is the power of defiance in the face of the State. Aneeka not only single-handedly—and very publicly—stands up to and actively disobeying the State but she makes its own players complicit and forces their hand.
It is a thrilling and moving act that shows how one person can make or break on a mass scale. One of the most effective parts of the story is the twitter posts, news reports both national news and tabloids that are interspersed with the narrators.
It not only grounds the story in the present but also serves as a sort of Greek Chorus to comment on the moralities of the tale. It also functions as a commentary on how, with social media, we often act as readers of national and international events, even participants an unverified tweet sets off a chain reaction of events late in the novel.
It serves as a good reminder that even the personal can be political and how we tend to all rally around a side whenever a story begins trending. Even if the reader is familiar with the source material, the ending is still highly successful. Shamsie has crafted a novel that is so infectious that I read it over a weekend and spent any time away from the novel thinking it over and yearning to get back.
It is highly cinematic, which gives it a fast pace, though slowing it down and letting it breathe would have been welcomed rather than going from event to event. The sections of Paraviz becoming radicalized are especially intense and Shamsie shows that emotional manipulation is often the tool for any army to get someone to die for their cause. Love and betrayal go hand-in-hand here, but, despite how things turn out, Shamsie reminds us that love was still the victor. Timely, insightful, poetic and irresistibly engaging, Home Fire is a book I find myself telling people to read all the time even two years after having read it.
Death you have to live through. View all 9 comments. When the Booker longlist was announced, this was one of the books that most interested me, because I really enjoyed Shamsie's previous two novels A God in Every Stone and Burnt Shadows.
I was a little nervous when I read that this is a modern retelling of Antigone, because my knowledge of the classics is very limited, but it is a fine book and another one which would make a worthy winner. The book is in five sections each of which focuses on a different character.
I found the first slow going - When the Booker longlist was announced, this was one of the books that most interested me, because I really enjoyed Shamsie's previous two novels A God in Every Stone and Burnt Shadows. I found the first slow going - we are introduced to Isma as she travels from Britain to Massachusetts to pursue her academic career. Isma is an orphan who has been looking after her younger twin siblings Aneeka and Parvaiz , and her father was a jihadi fighter in Chechnya and Afghanistan who only returned occasionally.
She meets another Briton from a Pakistani family, Eamonn, who is the son of the home secretary Karamat and is in America on holiday. This section is primarily a scene setter - the real action starts when Eamonn returns to London and meets Aneeka. They embark on a clandestine affair. In the third part we learn more about Parvaiz.
He is a drifter more interested in sound recording than working who is left at a loose end when Isma leaves for America and Aneeka starts a law degree.
He gets entangled with, and radicalised by Farooq, who turns out to be a recruiter for IS and who persuades him to head for Syria, with the promises that he will find out more about his father and his death while being transported to Guantanamo, and that he will lead a privileged life in the media arm of the organisation.
Things heat up when Parvaiz decides he wants to return to Britain, and the remainder of the book plays out the tragedy that ensues. When Parvaiz is killed in Istanbul, it is decreed that his body cannot be returned to Britain and instead it is sent to Pakistan. Aneeka goes to Pakistan to fight to have the body returned, and this mirrors the original Greek tragedy.
What I will say is that as a modern parable it works surprisingly well and becomes a very compulsive story. The Prime Minister and Chancellor are obviously modelled on Cameron and Osborne, so it is clear that Shamsie did not foresee the upheavals of the Brexit vote, but all of the other political content is chillingly plausible, and Shamsie paints a very nuanced picture of the difficulties faced by the Muslim community in dealing with their own extremists on one side and intolerance and misunderstanding on the other.
Perhaps slightly flawed in places, but the best parts are very good indeed. Nov 04, Dianne rated it really liked it Shelves: booker , best-of This is a powerful and gut-wrenching book loosely based on Greek mythology's story of Antigone, a woman defying a king to secure her brother an honorable burial. I knew this going in, so I did some research on Antigone so I could appreciate the parallels as they unfolded. Isma, Aneeka and Parvaiz are Muslims living in London and Amherst, This is a powerful and gut-wrenching book loosely based on Greek mythology's story of Antigone, a woman defying a king to secure her brother an honorable burial.
Adil abandoned his family to join the "fight against oppression" as a terrorist, and after imprisonment in Bagram, died on a plane for transport to Guantanamo. Being the children of a known terrorist creates difficulties for Isma, Aneeka and Parvaiz that play out in various ways throughout the narratives. This is a classic Greek tragedy in a modern "of the moment" setting, both heartbreaking and eye-opening.
I deeply appreciate Shamsie's ability to create empathy for each character and their situations. This was long-listed for the Man Booker in and was the favorite of many of my Goodreads friends, and for good reason. I highly recommend this gem. Not as masterful perhaps as Shamsie's, but one that deeply affected me and I still think about often.
Aug 03, Dem rated it really liked it Shelves: recommended. A remarkably short Novel that delivers on an epic scale. A story of family ties, loyalty and a story of prejudice in the modern world. A thought provoking and intelligent novel that left me wanting to read more of Kamila Shamsie's work This is another one of those books upon finishing I cant help regretting I hadn't read this as part of a group read just for the discussion factor as there is so much to discuss.
The Novel has a very powerful opening wih Isma a Muslin woman struggling to be admitte A remarkably short Novel that delivers on an epic scale. The Novel has a very powerful opening wih Isma a Muslin woman struggling to be admitted to the US on a student visa and her long delay in the interrogation room results in her missing her flight. Isma, Aneeka and Pavaiz have had nothing but each other for a long time, Their father's past rears it's ugly head and Parvaiz gets drawn into a world that nightmares are made of.
I loved the structure of this novel as it tells each character's story from his or her point of view in separate chapters. This is a brave novel and certainly makes you think, its well written and the characters are believable and interesting.
This is the sort of book that can be read in a couple of sittings and I think would work well for bookclubs. I look forward to checking out more books by this author. Do you say, what kind of idiot stands in front of a group of teenagers and tells them to conform?
Sometimes things happen that make people more hostile. Terrorist attacks involving European victims. Home Secretaries talking about people setting themselves apart in the way they dress.
That kind of thing. Studying Antigone in preparation for Home Fire I was struck, as I imagine Shamsie was, by the contemporary relevance of three key Greek concepts, left untranslated in the version I read. In modern day parlance, she is essentially proclaiming herself a citizen of nowhere, to use the accusatory phrase used in by the newly appointed British Prime Minister towards those who would calls themselves citizens of the world.
In the real world. Myself and my four brothers were brought up to believe in God, but I do not practise any religion. My wife is a practising Christian and the only religion practised in my house is Christianity. I think we should recognise that Christianity is the religion of our country. In the novel, Kamarat Lone, goes further: The day I assumed office I revoked the citizenship of all dual nationals who have left Britain to join our enemies. My predecessor only used these powers selectively which, as I have said repeatedly, was a mistake.
The interrogation continued for nearly two hours. I was very aware of Googling while Muslim while writing this book. When I started to research, I would do stupid things, like look at three relevant websites, then go look at some really trashy celebrity stuff for a while. Most strikingly, from the same interview: Q: Would you have published Home Fire before you had the security of knowing you were a British citizen?
A: No, absolutely not. In America, Isma suddenly encounters a handsome youth, in a rather Mills and Boonesque moment. Isma tilted her post-lunch mug of coffee towards herself, touched the tip of her finger to the liquid, considered how much of a faux pas it might be to ask to have it microwaved.
She had just decided she would risk the opprobrium when the door opened and the scent of cigarettes curled in from the smoking area outside, followed by a young man of startling looks. She soon recognises him as Karamat Lone's son: Eamonn, that was his name. There is history between the two families.
Isme, Aneeka and Parvaiz's father Adil Pasha had been a jihadi himself: their last contact with him a phone call from Afghanistan in late In they found out, from a fellow prisoner, now released that their father had been captured in early , imprisoned and tortured in the Bagram Theater Internment Facility and then died on route to Guantanamo.
The destiny of sons's to follow their father is a key theme of the novel, albeit one that I struggleda little with as so manifest in a 21st Century context.
As Eamonn tries to explain to one of the sisters: For girls, becoming women was inevitability; for boys, becoming men was ambition. He must have seen her look of incomprehension because he tried again. We want to be the only people in the world who are allowed to be better than them. I won't spoil what happens in the rest of the novel. Shamsie is to be credited for managing to: - adhere faithfully to the original - even incorporating nods to signature elements such as the dust storm that appears at one crucial moment, yet - maintain narrative tension - it is typically only afterwards that one recognises how the action follows the play, and - update the play's themes for a 21st Century setting - for example the role of Coryphaeus and the chorus is taken by the press - and highly topical issues.
The novel has some powerful things to say about dual nationality and identity - and the approach of allowing each character their perspective provides a relatively balanced view, albeit it is clear that Shamsie's sympathy's are not with Karamat Lone's approach to stripping those joining Islamic State of their citizenship and their right to return, even for burial when dead, to the UK.
She also, through Parvaiz, provides insight into what draws young people to Islamic State, drawing on the interviews in Gillian Slovo's verbatim play Another World: Losing our Children to Islamic State. She describes a recruitment video for Islamic State - note the dissonant images of violence interspersed with the idyllic scenes: Men fishing together against the backdrop of a beautiful sunrise; children on swings in a playground; a man riding through a city on the back of a beautiful stallion, carts of fresh vegetables lining the street; an elderly but powerful-looking man beneath a canopy of green grapes, reaching up to pluck a bunch; young men of different ethnicities sitting together on a carpet laid out in a field; standing men pointing their guns at the heads of kneeling men; an aerial night-time view of a street thrumming with life, car headlights and electric lights blazing; men and boys in a large swimming pool; boys and girls queuing up outside a bouncy castle at an amusement park; a blood donation clinic; smiling men sweeping an already clean street; a bird sanctuary; the bloodied corpse of a child.
And the book also doesn't spare those who make life more difficult for their fellows by their own actions. However the writing becomes more powerful in the latter two sections, as it move on to both the highly personal and yet public anguish of Aneeka, interspersed with excerpts from tabloid newspapers who rename Aneeka 'Knickers' and Parvaiz 'Pervy' as they seize with glee on the sex scandals in the story and then the political machinations of the Home Secretary.
And it struck me that the style choices in the first sections may have been that: choices, with Shamsie using the character's own worldviews to colour her third-person narration.
Overall - a novel I would be happy to see win the Booker, albeit there are many other strong books on the exceptional list: Autumn, Reservoir 13 my personal favourite , Solar Bones, Exit West and Lincoln in the Bardo would form the rest of my personal shortlist. View all 16 comments. Sep 18, Trish rated it liked it Shelves: asia , politics , immigration , foreign-affairs , mideast , family , british , adventure , religion , totally-unexpected. It is topical: two British families with Muslim religious roots and Pakistani backgrounds cone together in a doomed pas de deux.
The author Shamsie, according to cover copy, grew up in Karachi, and yet in her picture she has the round eyes of a Westerner. I read this novel very fast—it has a strange, porous density to it.
The meaning of sentences are all on the surface. The detail in the opening chapter is a blind, leading nowhere except providing an excuse for a meeting of the two families. The girl's family is orphaned. The disconnect between the two is wide, and should be difficult to overcome. We are not entirely convinced at any time. Love—what is it after all—and who can lay claim to it? The just-past teenage son of a British minister? Not so fast. And jihad—it is brought in clumsily, inauthentically, casually.
It may be just like those things, but I doubt it. In the end this struck me as an early attempt by a sort-of-promising author except that there was no weight to any of it. I got no sense of the enormously consequential decision in Sophocles' Antigone , despite the epigraph quoting Seamus Heaney's translation of the play.
I felt no grandeur in this novel, however. View all 11 comments. Delighted that this has now been recognised as the magnificent book it is: well done Women's Prize panel! Inspired by Sophocles' Antigone , this has a slightly shaky start but then soars into an outstanding tragedy of love, politics, justice and humanity.
By drawing on Athenian tragedy, Shamsie makes the point that clashes of civic law vs a deeper, more humane sense of what is right have always been contested, and the tension between family and state always problematic. What she does so brilliant Delighted that this has now been recognised as the magnificent book it is: well done Women's Prize panel! What she does so brilliantly in this book is to take these questions and give them an acutely charged contemporary relevance that leaves the reader shaken.
Refusing to simplify or neaten, Shamsie has produced a book which treats matters both horrific and beautiful with clear-sightedness, intellectual grace and compassion. A searing, towering, magnificent piece of storytelling which deserves to win prizes and be read by everyone - brava, Ms Shamsie!
Jul 12, Rachel rated it really liked it Shelves: , women-s-prize-winners , women-s-prize , sing-o-muse , literary-fiction , booker I don't know why I'd been under the impression that Home Fire was going to be a kind of loose, 'blink and you miss it' retelling of Antigone , but I'm almost glad that that had been my expectation, because the reality of this book completely caught me off guard. And I loved it. In this novel Kamila Shamsie gives us a fearless adaptation set in present-day London, following two Muslim families both grappling with famil Congratulations to Home Fire for winning the Women's Prize for Fiction!
In this novel Kamila Shamsie gives us a fearless adaptation set in present-day London, following two Muslim families both grappling with family legacy and national identity. I hesitate to say that you won't get anything out of this book if you aren't familiar with Antigone , but just in terms of my own experience, my reading of it was almost entirely informed by the parallels.
Just consider that this reads more like a Greek tragedy than it does a contemporary novel - not in terms of prose quality, certainly, but in terms of themes and narrative structure. There is nothing subtle about the way in which Shamsie riffs off Sophocles, but the hidden depths in Home Fire makes it a rewarding and necessary retelling, as does Shamsie's choice to reframe the story around an all-Muslim host of characters. The main theme at the heart of Antigone - measuring the power of the individual against the power of a corrupt state - is also the main theme of Home Fire.
But it's complicated here by the fact that the protagonists and antagonists alike are all a part of the same minority group; all striving to live as best they can in a society which continues to alienate and dehumanize them. The main criticism which I've seen leveled against this book - that its characters are flat - is valid, and I agree to an extent, but I also find myself forgiving this more here than I might in another novel.
The characters are 'flat' as such because they're deliberately constructed archetypes, and this is where I'm wondering if this would be a less rewarding reading experience for those not already familiar with the original story and characters.
The Creon figure here I thought was particularly fascinating for the way Shamsie subverted certain elements of his narrative. Anyway, I thought this novel was stimulating; the way in which Shamsie uses a classical narrative to give voice to a minority group is one of the best reasons I can think of to adapt a story that's already been told to death. Home Fire is topical and classical all at once, and an engaging, dramatic tragedy from start to finish.
View all 36 comments. I can't believe this, I'm absolutely gutted I did not like this book. What a disappointment : I have been looking forward to reading Home Fire ever since I heard about it last year and I was convinced this was going to be one of the best ones for me.
I could not have been more wrong. Home Fire is a book with lots of potential as the story centers around British Muslim siblings whose father joined a jihadist group. Sounds very promising, doesn't it? Such a timely, interesting topic, and one I can't believe this, I'm absolutely gutted I did not like this book.
Such a timely, interesting topic, and one that, in my opinion, doesn't get enough attention in the fiction genre. No wonder this book received so much attention. But unfortunately, that's the only positive thing I have to say about Home Fire. While the premise of the book is brilliant, the execution falls short. The writing is too lyrical for my liking, characters are not developed and there are only 5 of them , the story too blurry, bordering on boring.
The first chapter is probably the best one in the whole book and then it's just downhill from there. I know I am in the minority here but this is my honest opinion.
View 1 comment. This contemporary reimagining of Antigone uses a multitude of perspectives as a nexus to explore the differing experiences a Muslim individual can face, whilst residing in Britain. The opening scene introduces the reader to Isma, as a rigorous searching of her possessions ensues before boarding her plane to America.
Her embarrassment is acute, and yet she knows she must say thank you for the privilege of being subjected to this instance of everyday racism, that her ethnicity and religion elicits. This initial scene has no bearing on the future proceedings of the novel and is just one of many instances that acted as a catalyst in exposing the colour prejudice rampant in this country.
This exploration of our current political climate made me so aware of my inadvertent white privilege and not only did this open up factors of the Muslim identity, that I had no prior knowledge of, but it allowed the reader to see how casual racism enforces a division in people, and to actually feel how it effects the members it seeks to isolate.
Whilst continuing to be a powerfully political and insightful read throughout, this also delivered a heart-wrenching plot focused on a topic that needs no gender, ethnicity, culture, or sexual preference to identify it. This topic is love. This all-consuming and all-powerful emotion, in all its many forms, is fully explored. This novel opens up the intricacies of relationships between father and sons, siblings with one another, two strangers meeting in a foreign country, what is shared by two brothers in arms, growing lust entwined in bed-sheets, the shared passion of a nation, and so many more nuanced and varied instances, that are all categorised under the same four-lettered word.
Kamila Shamsie has proven herself as a writer I will forever seek more from. I found her prose to vary between the startling bleak and the ardently prosaic. I found her an author to never shy away from a controversial topic and, instead, to confront the difficult in every situation.
I found her eye-opening and gut-wrenching, but also awe-inspiring and heartfelt. This novel is, in short, as close to perfection, for me, as any a book can get. View all 4 comments. We are bemused by the Jehovah witnesses that refuse hospital treatment and try to convert us on the doorstep Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie is one of those novels that adds knowledge and widens perspectives.
It sheds a little light on the complexities of being a British Pakistani Muslim. From the day to day normality of life, to the occasional awkwardness and unease as cultures clash, to extreme questions such as radicalisation.
Aneeka and Parvais are twins. Isma is their older sister who at the beginning of the book, travels to America to study.
Their father, dead now, has a dark past that has shamed the family and Parvais has left the country and gone off grid The writing is excellent, the small cast of characters are carefully drawn and the plot is fascinating with a steady build up of tension. My problem with the novel is that about two thirds in, the narrative seemed to deflate, the tense build up halts, the air seeps out and the last third of the book limps on with no narrative drive.
The general storyline and themes of Home Fire are apparently based on the Antigone story from Greek mythology. This means little to me at present but it no doubt explains some of the plot shifts and the surprising ending. A mostly enjoyable and thought provoking read with some qualifications that added to my knowledge of another religion.
View all 22 comments. It's probably me. This happens to me not infrequently these days. I read a book. I can recognise, intellectually, that it is well written. The concept is an intriguing one - to re-write the Antigone story in an up-to-date setting and it IS very up-to-date ; it has a lot to say about the state of politics in our twittering, tweeting world, in our world of asymmetrical warfare; the characters resonate, the writing never jars, the font is large enough, it sneaks in at well under pages so I can' It's probably me.
The concept is an intriguing one - to re-write the Antigone story in an up-to-date setting and it IS very up-to-date ; it has a lot to say about the state of politics in our twittering, tweeting world, in our world of asymmetrical warfare; the characters resonate, the writing never jars, the font is large enough, it sneaks in at well under pages so I can't even complain that it makes excessive demands on my time.
And yet it does nothing. It doesn't move or excite me. After around page , knowing how the Antigone story ends, you know, not well for anyone really, it didn't even interest me much. Part of the problem might be the choice of narrative focus, which shifts from character to character.
A good method to show differing points of view, yes, but it creates distance, and a certain regret when Isma Ismene, the Antigone mirroring is very well flagged up disappears from sight. You know, just when you were getting to like her.
I dunno. View all 5 comments. Retellings that bring classic works into the present day are tricky. Shakespeare usually fares better, if only becau Retellings that bring classic works into the present day are tricky.
Shakespeare usually fares better, if only because those stories are so very malleable. But Shamsie pulls it off. Home Fire brings the epic scale and drama of a Greek tragedy to comfortable, contemporary Western lives without it wringing false or overwrought.
The key to this, I think, is keeping a tight focus on a few individual characters while the story involving terrorism and geopolitics drags them onto a global stage, where the stakes are high and real power is wielded.
This novel takes its time to lay the groundwork first though. But boy does it deliver in the final third, and that slow start with its careful layering makes total sense. View all 3 comments. This was a 3-star read for most of the book, but the last section was so phenomenal that it elevated the entire novel to something really special. Shamsie establishes the sovereignty of her own story before really diving into the Antigone references at the end, and she plays with a range of themes from Antigone and addresses contemporary issues without diminishing either goal.
I leave this book with a much deeper sense of how complicated it is to be a British Muslim than I've gotten from any no This was a 3-star read for most of the book, but the last section was so phenomenal that it elevated the entire novel to something really special. I leave this book with a much deeper sense of how complicated it is to be a British Muslim than I've gotten from any nonfiction.
This is a timely reworking of Antigone about issues of citizenship and state power. It's topical and relevant. But that symbolic framework of the tragedy is also its limitation. My problem is with the romance and ending to fit the tragedy. It felt forced, almost cartoonish. Some characters are paper thin and in a book of multiple perspectives, this inconsistency weakens it. A novel that's good in parts but underwhelming as a whole. I was disappointed. Isma and Karamat are complex and dynamic; even Parvaiz, to an extent, until he actually goes to Turkey and then his whole "radicalisation" is played out like some PSA video of the dangers of not-thinking, on fast-forward.
Much of the gravitas of Antigone is lost because Aneeka is not given the depth of a narrative voice. We see her through others.
That scene about whether she keeps her hijab on and going down on her knees for God after going down on her knees for sexy times made me CRINGE. I thought Shamsie was being ironic and making fun of Eamonn's cosmopolitan insularity, his dumb privileged young-man worldview, but he is rendered so earnestly as a good man that I realised this was entirely sincere.
Isma's critique of both the police state and Islamophobia, for example, carries more weight than Aneeka's sense of justice.
Isma is the heart of the book, but even then it was so weird, how is so steadfastly devoted to Aneeka that we don't even get a proper sense of her grief about Parvaiz. Her conversation with Karamat had that persuasive, morally-complex push-and-pull of Sophocles' play, but then that's over and the next thing you know, boom, the book is over with a Bollywood ending. Very disappointing. After years spent raising her twin siblings in the wake of their mother's death, she is finally studying in America, resuming a dream long deferred.
But she can't stop worrying about Aneeka, her beautiful, headstrong sister back in London or their brother, Parvaiz, who's disappeared in pursuit of his own dream: to prove himself to the dark legacy of the jihadist father he never knew.
A modern retelling of Antigone set amongst a family divided by politics, love, and radicalism. Home Isma is free. Home Fire is an intelligent, thought-provoking and wonderfully written novel about family, identity and divided loyalties. Exciting and beautiful, it is, at its heart about the choices we make for love, and for the place we call home.
Dec 15, Bookworm rated it really liked it. Oh wow! What a thought-provoking and emotional read! I was not expecting such a powerful and cleverly written work of fiction. Home Fire tackles a difficult yet important subject matter - the humanistic impact of modern day terrorism. The reader is brought into an all-too-familiar scenario in which people of Muslim faith are automatically branded as Jihadists and suspected of sympathizing with terrorist activities.
The prejudices and "extra security measures" these folks are subjected to is expl Oh wow! The prejudices and "extra security measures" these folks are subjected to is explored through the eyes of the Pasha family. The opening chapter begins with Isma Pasha, the eldest sibling, being interrogated at the airport for several hours to ensure she is not a terrorist and missing her flight from London to the USA.
As the story progresses, we learn more about the plight of the Pasha family, whose father was hailed as a hero by jihadi groups and died en route to Guantanamo bay. The story is told from several different POV's, which keeps the perspective fresh and provides a more dynamic plot development.
We get to know each character and their "truth" which allows the reader to engage and form their own opinions and feelings towards each. The only downside was that each character's perspective was highlighted only once throughout the story, so as the plot progressed, I would have liked to have returned to a former character's POV to hear what they were experiencing further along.
Home Fire also includes a political component that focuses on "homeland security," and as a nation trying to protect itself from the horrendous acts of terrorism, how far do we go? In fact, the character customizations keep the game interesting at every step.
It would rather focus on a fun, cartoonish appearance approach. The ability to change weapons, increase health meters, and drive cars comes with weird graphics. Having said that, Free Fire Battlegrounds receives new skins, customizations, avatars, and weapons on a regular basis. The development team also organizes special events, promotions, and deals. Also, some servers in this mobile game are slow.
Hopefully, future updates will resolve such issues. Overall, this action game is fun to play. It can keep you occupied for hours in one go. Unfortunately, the slow servers and constant glitches have been hampering its growth in an already tightly packed gaming category.
The battle royale game is a fast-paced offering from Garena International. In fact, the engaging gameplay keeps bringing you back to the island where anything goes to win the game. Free god simulation sandbox game. Free secure video meeting platform. Post and share your photos and videos. Facebook's messaging app that bursts at the seams with trendy functions.
Wide collection of inhouse productions and popular shows. Multiple customizations, fast-paced sequences, and engaging gameplay Developed by Garena International, this battle royale game has been able to build a solid community of fans and followers around the world. What is the objective of the game? What about customizations? Our take Overall, this action game is fun to play. Should you download it? Highs Offers fun and engaging gameplay Comes with multiple customizations Supported by a solid community Offers good background score.
Lows Some servers are slow No offline mode available. WorldBox Free god simulation sandbox game. Google Meet Free secure video meeting platform. Facebook Lite Free light mobile Facebook app.
0コメント