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    Home Fire: A Novel
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    Home Fire: A Novel
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    Home Fire: A Novel
    Audiobook7 hours

    Home Fire: A Novel

    Written by Kamila Shamsie

    Narrated by Tania Rodrigues

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Longlisted for the 2017 Man Booker Prize

    The suspenseful and heartbreaking story of an immigrant family driven to pit love against loyalty, with devastating consequences


    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.

    Then Eamonn enters the sisters' lives. Son of a powerful political figure, he has his own birthright to live up to—or defy. Is he to be a chance at love? The means of Parvaiz's salvation? Suddenly, two families' fates are inextricably, devastatingly entwined, in this searing novel that asks: What sacrifices will we make in the name of love?

    Editor's Note

    Award winner…

    This modern retelling of “Antigone” won the 2018 Women’s Prize for Fiction for its lyrical portrayal of the personal and political loyalties of Pakistani families living in London.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateAug 15, 2017
    ISBN9780525497868
    Unavailable
    Home Fire: A Novel
    Author

    Kamila Shamsie

    Kamila Shamsie is the author of six novels including Home Fire which was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2017, shortlisted for the Costa Best Novel Award, the Books Are My Bag Readers Awards 2018, and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, and won the London Hellenic Prize and the Women's Prize for Fiction 2018. Three of her novels have received awards from Pakistan's Academy of Letters. Kamila Shamsie is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was named a Granta Best of Young British Novelists in 2013; she was also awarded a South Bank Arts Award in 2018. She grew up in Karachi and now lives in London.

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    Reviews for Home Fire

    4/5

    484 ratings35 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Allusions in modern texts are always a hit for me. Home Fire loosely parallels the Greek myth Antigone which I read every year with sophomores. Shamsie's writing is engaging and thought-provoking. Using a terrorist and having empathy for him, wouldn't seem possible. An excellent novel even if you're unfamiliar with Antigone.
    • 5/5
      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 - 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.I won't comment in detail about how this relates to the Sophocles play or the Anouilh version of the story - I will leave that to more expert critics. 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.
    • 4/5
      Isma has raised her twin siblings, Parvaiz and Aneeka, since she was a young adult. Now, the twins are 19, and Isma is leaving England for America to resume her studies. The Pasha family are originally from Pakistan, but are now UK citizens. Their late father, however, was involved with ISIS, putting the family under some suspicion. When the brother, Parvaiz, also joins a terrorist group, his sisters struggle in very different ways to get him out of that organization and home.This novel is very timely and addresses issues of today. In the novel, the British Home Secretary wants to remove citizenship from UK citizens who join terrorist groups, something we see discussed by governments today. The idea of leaving people stateless is something that disturbs me. The author has shown what families will do to protect loved ones -- whether by assimilation, working with authorities or other more controversial means. Very well written and thought-provoking.
    • 4/5
      I was trepidatious as the book started a little slow, posing as a domestic soap opera, but it just kept building momentum as it incorporated prejudice against Muslims, Muslim extremism, the Islamic state and British politics, all the time keeping family at the center as it heads toward its devastating, beautiful ending. Recommended.
    • 4/5
      Brainwashing.Well, I could have done without this being a contemporary reselling of Antigone, as I'm really not a fan of rehashing the old fables in modern form. Still, I was pretty much able to ignore the comparisons and take the story at face value - a tragic tale of fundamentalism and its disastrous effects on a family.I read this because the author was attending our local Lit Fest, and I'm glad I did. It depicted the struggles of an immigrant family that, to all intents and purposes, had become British, yet their beliefs and values still undermined their every move and influenced their thoughts.The eldest member of the family, Isma, has been caring for her younger siblings since their mother died. Now that they are older, Isma finally has the opportunity to do something for herself; to accept an invitation to carry out research in America under a much respected mentor. However, she still worries about her younger sister, Aneeka, and Aneeka's twin brother, Parvais. Aneeka can be reckless and foolish, while Parvais has been missing, believed to be attempting to follow in his father's fanatical footsteps.When Isma meets Eamon, son of a powerful MP, and sends him to her family with a package to post, she opens up a can of worms that has no lid.The fall-out from this event is cataclysmic, as the characters spiral downwards into their own black holes and Isma tries desperately to hold the family together.Definitely a powerful read, a book of our times.Also read, by the same author: Burnt Shadows (5*)
    • 4/5
      A powerful read although I was a little disappointed with the ending.Isma has taken her mother's place for years. Now she can accept the invitation to study in America. Still she is concerned about Aneeka, her lovely sister in London, and their brother, Parvaiz, who is following his own dream. Alas his dream is to follow his jihadist father. Then Eamonn comes into their lives and all hell breaks loose. Strong writing, strong characters, and a bomb of an ending. A good read for those struggling to understand ISIS and a good book for those who like a powerful story.
    • 3/5
      An interesting look at being a Muslim in UK. It's meant to be based on Antigone. I think I might need to go and find what the storyline of that is to better appreciate this storyline.
    • 3/5
      Although quite interesting, I would this book to be a bit contrived and all improbable. The story of the boy's indoctrination is believable, but I could not see how he or any member of his family would have been able to travel as they did, given the fact that their father was a convicted terrorist who died in Guantamino Bay.
    • 3/5
      A story that explores the controversial subject of the indoctrination of the ISIS philosophy into a sympathetic yet ultimately misguided populace.Isma Pasha followed her dream to America leaving behind her elegant sister Aneeka and her vulnerable yet impressionable brother Parvaiz. Eamonn, the son of outspoken Home Secretary Karamat Lone, becomes captivated by the beauty that is Aneeka. Does Aneeka reciprocate this love or is she merely using Eamonn to help rescue her twin brother Parvaiz who has since travelled to Syria but very quickly lives to regret this decision.There is a nice balance in this novel between the Pasha family whose father Adil, had been a jihadi and had gone to Afghanistan to fight with the Taliban and died for his beliefs, and Home Secretary Karamat Lone a traditionalist and yet a reformer. He loathed those citizens irrespective of beliefs or culture..."who treated the privilege of British citizenship as something that could be betrayed without consequences"...and further..."I hate the Muslims who make people hate Muslims"......I can understand why Home Fire was the winner of the Women's Prize for fiction 2018 and whilst the first part of this novel was a little reticent and slow to impress the second half presented neatly formulated ideas and beliefs all leading to a very sudden unexpected conclusion. Home Fire is a story of the modern world and shows what happens when the corrupt and misguided prey on the weak and receptive.
    • 4/5
      I was drawn to this story because it gave a small insight to the plight of muslims living today. This is the story of two families that are changed forever because of the love affair between two members of each family. The story is told from the perspective of 5 different members of the family so you get to know these characters well. The ending was unexpectedand I found the story to get better toward the end.
    • 4/5
      First, I'm such a disappointment as an English major. Halfway through the book I read some reviews to learn that this is a retelling of Antigone. Since I have no memory of Antigone even though I think I read it twice and saw it on stage, this knowledge didn't give away any plot except I knew it would be tragic, and that it was.The story revolves around 2 British families whose parents immigrated from Pakistan. The conflict comes when they cross paths. In one family a young son becomes a jihadist and in the other they are giving up all their roots as much as possible. The first half of the novel is so deeply rooted at the character level while the second half becomes becomes more about the community and their place in a world of turmoil. I can't give away the ending but I've got questions! If anyone has read it I want to discuss.
    • 3/5
      I haven't read Antigone. I don't know whether it would have helped or not if I had. Home Fire is the story of three siblings from a British Muslim family who each react to the disappearance and death of their jihadi father in their own way. One takes on responsibility for the family after their mother and grandmother die, putting her own dreams on hold. Another becomes absorbed in her relationship with her twin brother. And the twin brother becomes a jihadi himself. It's a clever story and kept me gripped in terms of the plot, but I didn't think any of the characters had enough depth. For all the drama, there was a detachment about them. I wanted to feel their passion, to find a deeper analysis of why young British Muslims choose to fight for terrorist organisations or become 'jihadi brides'. Instead it all felt a bit surfacey.
    • 5/5
      This devastating novel has echoes of the Greek tragedy Antigone (but you don't need it as a prequel), with two sisters caught between their brother, their father's past, a powerful politician, and his son. It's set in the US, Britain, Pakistan, and Syria, and opens with the American life of Isma, elder sister to twins Aneeka and Parvaiz, all three children of Muslim fighter Adil, who died in Bagram, Afghanistan, after being tortured. Isma and Aneeka seem to have escaped the violent politics of their father, but son Parvaiz, an unambitious sound engineer, falls under the influence of a jihadist and runs away to join ISIS. When Aneeka meets Eammon, the son of the British Home Secretary Karamat, she tries to rescue Parvaiz via the arrogant politician, who has advanced his own career by advocating only for "good" Muslims. Isma, Eammon, Aneeka, and Karamat each hold forth in sections of the narrative. The approaching doom is so menacing that the reader hesitates to turn the concluding pages. The intense emotion and delusion underlying each character make this an unforgettable novel of torture and obsession.
    • 5/5
      More of a "thriller" than I usually read, I greatly enjoyed this story of two British families of Pakistani immigrants being influenced by their families' backgrounds.The story is grippingly told though five family narrators in a relatively sequential manner and works well at conveying the issues experienced which others will not think about.My reservation is that the story is told to tell the author's specific story, rather than letting the story develop more organically from the characters and because of this, although the characters are well described, they come across as somewhat representative, rather than individual.There are many vivid images and quotable passages, but I especially liked this about bushy beards:"ecosystem beards (Aneeka had named them): large enough to support an ecosystem" Well worth reading, but difficult to describe without spoilers.
    • 4/5
      Home Fire is a story told from the perspective of five characters of British Pakistani descent, each of whom have one section of the novel each. The story revolves around the decision of 19-year-old Parvaiz to travel to Syria to join the so-called Islamic State, and the impact this has on his family, especially on his twin sister Aneeka and his older sister Isma.I really enjoyed the book as a whole, particularly Isma's section, which reminded me a little of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah. The book has a lot of important things to say about the nature of Britishness in the modern age, as well as about human rights in an era of increased terrorism. Karamat's section in particular was very thought-provoking on these issues.Apparently this novel is based on the Greek tragedy Antigone. I didn't know anything about Antigone, so I didn't know what to expect story-wise, and this kept me guessing up until the end. The prose is very well-written and I rattled through the novel fairly quickly. My only gripes are that I felt I didn't really get to know Aneeka all that well apart from in the context of her relationship with her twin, and I also think the ending was a little rushed (but still affecting).
    • 4/5
      As chance would have it, earlier this year I actually read the classic Greek tragedy which serves as the rough template for Shamsie's "Home Fire." I'm not going to name that here as that would likely be a spoiler, but I think if you look at many other reviews it will likely be mentioned anyway.In any case, the reason I picked up the book was due to its being on the 2017 Booker longlist and the visual attraction of its cover art (for the North American Penguin Group/Riverhead Books edition) which seemed to echo Georgia O'Keeffe's flower paintings. I probably won't read the entire Booker list, so cover art can make a difference in the selection process. I wasn't initially aware of the book's inspirational basis and it wasn't given away in the cover blurb. It is mentioned finally in the author's Afterword.Even knowing that inspiration, you are not totally spoiled for the book as the exact family connections and fates are not completely identical. You will have a sense of imminent tragedy in any case without perhaps knowing the precise events and individuals who will be affected.I found "Home Fire" to be engaging and very readable and even when the inspiration becomes clear it was still completely engrossing. This was especially so despite its multi-character POV style which is normally not my favourite type of writing. Shamsie tells her story from several characters' POVs as each of them becomes the central figure for a period of time. The progression felt completely suited and appropriate to the story.
    • 5/5
      After their mother dies, Isma must care for her younger twin brother and sister Aneeka and Parvaiz. Their father, a jihadist, had died years before, allegedly as a prisoner on his way to Guantanamo. As the novel opens, Aneeka and Parvaiz are adults, Aneeka a law student and Parvaiz gainfully employed, and Isma is on her way to America to continue her interrupted education.In America, Isma meets Eamonn, the son of an important Muslim politician in England (soon to be Home Secretary). Unknown to Eamonn, his father, a thoroughly secularized and assimilated Muslim, had in the past refused to help Isma and her family with the problems they faced when her father was determined to be a jihadist. Although Isma is romantically attracted to Eamonn, he feels only a brotherly relationship toward her. While Isma was in America, Parvaiz has been seduced by ISIS recruiters, and disappears. The family are devastated. Then when Aneeka meets Eamonn, who has returned to Englan, they begin a torrid relationship--the question is whether it is true love, or does Aneeka have ulterior motives because Eamonn's family is so politically powerful. Events propel the two families inexorably toward the future, and the reader will have to decide whether the ending is transcendent or tragic. (Hint--Shamsie has stated that the novel is based on the drama Antigone.)The novel is narrated in several sections, each from the pov of one of the primary characters--Isma, Eamonn, Parvaiz, Aneeka, and Karamat Lone, the Home Secretary and Eamonn's father. It is a thoughtful look at issues of immigration, terrorism, and our reactions (or overreactions) to terrorism and the pain caused to the innocent because of our fears. This is the first book I have read by Shamsie but I will be reading more.Highly recommended.4 1/2 stars
    • 4/5
      Modern day British Muslims, Islamist terrorists, love, family and state. This novel, set in England and the US, looks at two families and the very different paths the children take. Five sections are each narrated by one of the principal characters, continuously moving the timeline forward. Brilliantly told and the ending blew me away. Timley and captivating.
    • 5/5
      (Just finished reading some reviews of this book on LT. Yikes, people are giving away WAY too much of the plot! I will do my best not to repeat that faux pas.. Any plot details below are revealed in the first few chapters.)Buzz may already have told you that Shamsie's latest novel is a modern-day spin on Sophocles's Antigone. It focuses on the intertwined relationships of two families. At 28, Isma is the de facto head of the Pasha family, three siblings who hold dual British and Pakistani citizenship. Her absentee father, a jihadi warrior, was assumed to have died on the way to Guantanemo long ago, and her mother had died seven years earlier when the twins, Aneeka and Parvaiz, were only 12,. Now Isma is ready to start living her own life, having won a scholarship to an American university. But without her steadying influence, things start to go awry. Parvaiz succumbs to the recruitment tactics of a radical Islamic group, and a frantic Aneeka begs her sister to come back to London to help to bring their wayward brother home. When Isma hesitates, Aneeka takes extraordinary measures to accomplish the task on her own.British Home Secretary Karamat Lone is a politician with his sites on the Prime Minister's seat. He married a wealthy American designer whose money helped propel him to power. Once there, he decided that the best way to advance in his career would be to turn his back on the Muslim community, which he has done with a vengeance. Daughter Emily is away at an American university, and son Eamonn is a handsome, charming, but rather aimless young man. When members of the two families meet, relationships become complicated, and, if you know the story of Antigone, you won't be wrong to expect a tragic turn.I've had mixed feelings about some of Shamsie's earlier novels, and I wasn't too sure about this one as well. However, the further I got into the story, the more engaged I became. The book is divided into sections devoted to the viewpoints of the main characters (Isma, Eamonn, Parvaiz, Aneeka, and Karamat). The first section is mostly setup and goes rather slowly, although it does establish the relationships among the Pasha siblings and brings Eamonn into the picture. As his seemingly strange but passionate relationship with Aneeka develops, the plot thickens, and by the time I reached Aneeka's section, I could not put the book down until I finished the novel. That part is not a simple straightforward narrative, as are the others: its short section consists of some brief but beautiful poetry, salacious newspaper reports, TV news voice-overs, and official government statements, all of which help to build the tension and lead to an unexpected conclusion.Home Fire was longlisted for the 2017 Man Booker Prize, and rightfully so; I'm rather surprised and quite disappointed that it didn't make it to the short list. Shamsie has come into her own with this novel, her best so far, in my opinion.
    • 5/5
      "What was this? Not grief. Grief she knew. Grief was the stepsibling they'd grown up with, unwanted and inevitable. Grief the amniotic fluid of their lives. Grief she could look in the eyes while her twin stared over its shoulder and told her of the world that lay beyond." (197)Aneeka and Parvaiz were as close to being one as two people could be. From their time in the womb to the time when their father left the family to join his Muslim brothers in the jihadist movement, through the deaths of both mother and grandmother, these two shared each other's joys and sorrows. Big sister Isma took care of them and loved them. When her two siblings came of age, she decided it was her time, and she went from London to Amherst for an advanced degree. Her sister Aneeka was doing well as a begnning law student but both sisters worried about Parvaiz. It was not easy being a Muslim in England during the best of times, but now that they were under close scrutiny, his strange behavior was worrisome.This story of a fractured family could have been taken from today's headlines or it could go back to the ancient writings of Sophocles?or both. It's a timeless story of how young people are easily influenced and can make bad decisions. But should these decisions be permanent or should there be allownces for retribution? Kamila Shamsie held me in her masterful grip as she explored a world where politics and young love clash dragging family members and ethnic groups into the fray. This is not a long book but its emotional wrench will be with me for a long time.
    • 4/5
      There are so many timely subjects right now, world concerns and threats, and authors have responded in kind. This novel features two Muslim families in Britain, two families that have very different opinions on family and how to show or display their Muslim beliefs. It moves the themes in Sophocles, Antigone to present times. I remember very little about Antigone, refreshed my memory on Wiki, but I cannot really knowledgeably comment on the adequecy of the comparison.The novel starts out slowly paced, rather inoculously, as a young Muslim women, who has spent many years raising her two twin siblings. Now that they are old enough, Isma decides it is time to complete her interrupted education. The family!y of three has long been under the surveillance of the British Security service as their father was a known jihadist, who died on the way to Guantanamo.We learn about the methods used to recruit young people, usually 18 or 19, to the Islamic terrorist cause. The novel is narrated in alternating chapters by the five main characters. Each succeeding chapter is more intense, and by the time we hear from Aneeka, this story had radically changed, become super charged, very intense. The novel displays a confidence not only in prose but in how the story is related, which I found extremely effective.Complex issues. Love of family, youthful mistakes, how much can be forgiven. Government stances versus family, fear versus love, and the difficulties of Muslims, how they must act to fit in with society. Long listed for the Booker, I find tis a very worthy addition. U forgettable, some of the visuals displaying a sisters love I don't think I will forget.ARC from edelweiss.
    • 4/5
      A powerful and important look at the lives of a family touched by Muslim extremism, and the ripples of tragedy radiating out from one decision. This book is narrated by multiple characters, and the only thing keeping it from being a 5-star read for me is the POV used for the end of the book - by far the least sympathetic in the novel, and the last person I'd want to experience the ultimate scenes with. Despite that quibble, however, this will be a story I won't soon forget.
    • 4/5
      Isma and Aneeka's father was a jihadi, who died on his way to Guantanamo Bay. This has affected the way they live and Isma in particular has gone to great lengths to disassociate the family from his actions. However, now their brother Parvaiz has joined Isis. The book is told from varying perspectives, including those of Isma (who goes to the US to study and there meets Eamonn, the Home Secretary's son), Aneeka (who hopes Eamonn will be able to influence his father in Parvaiz' favour), and Parvaiz himself in Syria. I thought it was excellent, especially the Parvaiz section, although I found the part towards the end where Aneeka is in Pakistan a little drawn out. The character of the Home Secretary was probably the least nuanced in the novel and I wanted to hear more about what his wife really thought. The novel explored the different choices made by British Muslims and the issues faced by them.Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      Rating this one a 3.5 stars. The language was overly descriptive in some places. The structure seems like a relay race, with each character introduced, then largely abandoned for the next who picked up the plot and moved on. The plot and thematic development moved along but the character development seemed sacrificed for the plot. Interesting take on the struggle between family loyalty and societal expectations. Haunting final scene. Listened to the audiobook for this.
    • 3/5
      audiobook (8 hours), fiction (Pakistani Muslim immigrants in England, love story complicated by brother's having been recruited by terrorist extremists)Not sure I like the overly dramatic ending, but I guess it goes along with the messily complicated circumstances of the story.
    • 4/5
      A very close Pakistani family, an older sister and younger twins, but they are drawn apart when the twin brother becomes radicalized and goes to join Al Qaeda. A fascinating story. I did feel that the author could have used some editing of her awkward sentence structure.
    • 4/5
      Second novel I've read by this Pakistani/British author and this was by far a better novel than the first one I read. I enjoyed this book though maybe enjoy is the wrong word as this is a heartbreaking tale. It is apparently a retelling of Antigone set in modern times of ISIS terrorists. It looks at what it is like to be Muslim and British and not a terrorist.Home Fire won the Women's Prize for Fiction 2018, and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2017 and shortlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2018.
    • 5/5
      Captivating from page one. Well written, does not dip into sentimental schmuck even when it veers toward becoming a love story (stick with the book, it rights itself and gets on track and you discover none of it is by accident). I love the shifting perspectives that only enhance the story and move it forward, never retracing unnecessarily. That the book also offers me a perspective into a culture and experience so vastly different than my own is more than just icing on the cake.
      I am glad I did not catch the Antigone inspiration so that I was able to read the story without expectations of where it would go or how it would end. It is just excellent.
    • 5/5
      A very powerful book (well everyone says that). The account of how ordinary people can become terrorists is very valuable - and chilling. Definiteloy anyone interested in our times should read
    • 5/5
      I had heard that this book was very good. After all it won the 2018 Women's Prize for Fiction. It still took me by surprise at how relevant and well-written the book was. In a part of London near Wembley stadium three children were raised by their mother as their father was off being a Muslim freedom fighter. Isma is the oldest and she raised the twins, Aneeka and Parvaiz, after their mother dropped dead of a heart attack. She got a job in a dry cleaning outfit and managed to pay bills and look after the twins until they reached adulthood. Now she can return to her studies and she has been offered a place in an American university where a former professor now works. Parvaiz left home soon after he graduated from high school. He was supposed to be going to Pakistan where the family had relatives but he never showed up there. He is occasionally online and his twin has heard from him but he doesn't contact Isma. Aneeka is going to law school at the London School of Economics (she is only 19 and in Canada she wouldn't be accepted into Law School until she had at least 2 years of University but I checked the LSE website and they do accept students with top notch high school grades) and she is staying with the woman who is their neighbour, Aunty Naseem. Isma meets a fellow Brit at a coffee shop she frequents and she recognizes him as Eamonn Lone, the son of a prominent Tory politician. Although the Lones are Muslim they do not practise the faith and Karamat Lone has made a name for himself as being hard on British-born Muslim terrorists. Isma knows Mr. Lone and his family because she appealed to him to learn more about her father's death after being captured by Americans and sent to Guantanamo. Mr. Lone refused to do anything for the family. Nevertheless Isma finds herself drawn to Eamonn and she eventually tells him of her father and how Eamonn's father let them down. When Eamonn returns to London he goes to visit Aunty Naseem and Aneeka and soon he and Aneeka are involved in a passionate love affair. Aneeka has not told Eamonn about her brother but when he proposes to her she reveals that she started seeing him because she thought he might be able to influence his father to let Parvaiz come home. Parvaiz has become disillusioned with ISIS and wants to return but they are holding his passport. Will Mr. Lone, who is now Home Secretary, help? I can't reveal more but I will say that the ending is dramatic and surprising.In the acknowledments section the author says that a friend suggested she adopt the story of Antigone in a contemporary context. I suppose if I knew my Greek myths better then the ending would not have been a surprise. However, I am rather glad I didn't know this because I did read that section before I finished the book and I think that would have taken away from the drama of the ending.If you have ever wondered how young people get influenced to leave home and join terrorist organizations then this book will explain it. It is truly an insidious process.