A review by nadia
Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie

challenging emotional sad tense fast-paced
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I went into this not knowing what it was about at all, picking it up as I needed a winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction for Reading Women's 2020 reading challenge.  Some mentioned what Greek myth Home Fire is retelling of while I was reading it — I had no idea it was a retelling of anything — but luckily I couldn't recall the details of that particular story.

This was a fast-paced read, packed with a lot of dark and deep themes: identity, religion and Islam, terrorism, politics and patriotism, loyalty and love.

I particularly enjoyed the shifting perspectives — The book  felt balanced and they all of the sections fit together as one cohesive, compelling narrative.
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