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On reading Home Fire, it quickly became clear that this was not going to be a novel with a happy ending for its characters. They take turns to tell their stories: Isma, sister and mother to her orphaned siblings, finally free to pursue her dream of studying for a PhD in America; free-spirited Aneeka, who loves her twin brother above all else; her brother Parvaiz, searching for something to fill the hole left in his life by the dead jihadi father he never knew; Eamonn, the politician’s son who falls in love with Aneeka; and his father Karamat who will introduce the laws that destroy the lives of the two families. Shamsie examines the details of the lives of Muslims and immigrants amid the paranoia of post 9/11 Britain. The picture she paints of the effects of anti-terror legislation on ordinary people is not a pretty one. Any book club will find plenty of material here for discussion.
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