Home Fire (Shamsie) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
Kamila Shamsie's new novel…a bold retelling of Sophocles' Antigone… begins with an airport interrogation…a scene that sets the tone for this ingenious and love-struck novel. Isma is eventually allowed to take off. Home Fire takes flight as well. This novel may seem to wobble in the minutes after its landing gear retracts. There are lurching shifts of tone as it moves between matters of the heart and of state. Do not panic. Order something from the drinks cart. Shamsie drives this gleaming machine home in a manner that, if I weren't handling airplane metaphors, I would call smashing.
Dwight Garner - New York Times

This is 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.
Katharine Weber - Washington Post


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


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.
Guardian (UK)


The most impressive part of Home Fire, though, is Shamsie's writing, which is beautiful without being florid, and urgent without being rushed.… Shamsie is at her best when she lets herself go; she's an immensely talented writer, and a deeply musical one as well. Home Fire might not be quite perfect, but it's still a gorgeous novel, and one that comes at just the right time.
Michael Schaub - NPR


Shamsie’s timely fiction probes the roots of radicalism and the pull of the family.
Oprah Magazine


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


[M]emorable…epic tale of two Muslim families whose lives are entangled by politics and conflict.… [S]eparated into five parts…each reveals a portion of the story from a different character’s perspective.… [S]lient and heartbreaking, culminating in a shocking ending.
Publishers Weekly


[A]ccomplished…emotionally compelling …lucid storytelling. [The author] 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


(Starred review.) 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

[H]aunting…explosive novel with big questions about the nature of justice, defiance, and love. [I]ts characters… don't quite come alive… [and] the book remains emotionally disconnected, unsettling—moving, even—but poetically removed.
Kirkus Reviews