Home Fire
SynopsisPlot
Isma is free. After years of watching out for her younger siblings in the wake of their mother's death, she's accepted an invitation from a mentor in America that allows her to resume 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. When he resurfaces half a globe away, Isma's worst fears are confirmed.
Story
About this book
Home Fire follows three British Muslim siblings shaped by the shadow of a father they never knew. Isma, the eldest, spent years raising her younger sister Aneeka and brother Parvaiz after their mother's death. When she leaves London for an academic opportunity in America, she still worries about the two she left behind, especially Parvaiz, who has disappeared in pursuit of his father's legacy.
Parvaiz resurfaces far from London, confirming Isma's fears. Meanwhile Eamonn, son of a prominent political figure with a birthright of his own, becomes entangled with the sisters, and public power collides with a private crisis. Shamsie moves between Britain, America, and other locations as loyalties fracture and personal bonds strain against the demands of the state.
The novel reworks Sophocles' Antigone, a Greek tragedy about a sister who defies a ruler over her brother, and places that conflict between family duty and state authority in contemporary Britain. Kamila Shamsie was born in Karachi and has lived in Pakistan and the United Kingdom. Home Fire won the Women's Prize for Fiction in 2018.
