Burnt Shadows

by Kamila Shamsie

Book Overview

Kamila Shamsie's Burnt Shadows is a story for our time by "a writer of immense ambition and strength. . . . This is an absorbing novel that commands in the reader a powerful emotional and intellectual response" -Salman Rushdie.

Winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award
An Orange Prize Finalist

Nagasaki, August 9, 1945. Hiroko Tanaka watches her lover from the veranda as he leaves. Sunlight streams across...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312551878
• ISBN13: 9780312551872
• Release Date: April 2009
• Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.3" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Great book for book club discussion

Because I am a Japanese woman, I was prepared to be upset with the main character Hiroko being your stereotype Japanese girl because it was written by a Pakistani author. Hiroko was nothing like the girl I imagined, and yet I could see myself in her. Burnt Shadows reminded me of innocent comments I've heard from Americans such as, "It( dropping Atomic Bombs) had to be done to save American lives". After the Iraq War started, I've heard the similar opinions. Burnt Shadows explains the frustration and anger I feel whenever those otherwise very kind and caring people express their deeper belief of their superiority and disregards towards other parts of world. What I really wanted to tell, but was too afraid to open my mouth was, "Iraq didn't attack USA. Many of the dead are civilians. They were somebody's mother, daughter, father, sons, grandmothers, grandfathers, and grandchildren. You can't tell a heart-broken mother, whose child's head was blown off in front of her, to stop crying and be grateful and happy because US took care of Sadam". [...]Reviewer Carolyn See wrote, "Her argument is that the British and American empires, through their conscienceless colonialism (and particularly America's use of the bomb), are responsible for the very troubled world we live in today". But, I don't think Shamsie was accusing Britain and USA for the world's every trouble. She just wants them to look into their souls once in a while. At least, that's how I read. I wouldn't say Burnt Shadows is the best novel I've ever read. It has some problems such as the color of birds on Kimono and Hiroko's words in the end. I wish the characters were emotionally more attractive. Having said that, Burnt Shadow is definitely one of the most ambitious and intellectual attempts to make a case for those who never had a chance (maybe too ambitious to be successful). Because of its' imperfection, I believe it will generate a better discussion. Therefore, I give 5 stars despite the flaw. It will be a great book for your book club.

Living Beyond the Shadows

Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie is an ambitious epic book that grabs you in the prologue, as an unnamed narrator is disrobed and left to wait naked with only a steel bench to sit on. His thought is - "How did it come to this." How stark is this setting - but the grace of the language warns you that this is a story that you want to see unfold. The story spans 60 years and takes the reader to five different countries: Nagasaki, August 1945; Delhi 1947; Pakistan 1982-3; and New York/ Afghanistan 2001-2; and the connecting points for two families whose family members will have intimate knowledge of the destruction of war. It all starts in the morning of August 9, 1945 before the bomb was dropped on Nagasaki and we are introduced to schoolteacher, Hiroko Tanaka and a man from Berlin, Konrad Weiss. Both are looking forward to the end of the war so that life gets back to normal and they can be wed. But history has other plans, and Hiroko whose language skills has her working for the Americans during the occupation. Unable to work closely with the "terrorists" who have invaded her country, she flees to Delphi to Konrad's sister. Hiroko is the one character that is present throughout the book and helps thread the book themes together. This is an elegantly written story that allows the reader to understand how history affects our relationships with each other, Sometimes history defers relationships and others relationships survive despite the history. In each of the major parts of the book - there are historical events that are well known but what is not known is how it affects individuals who only want "to farm their land and raise their families." There are themes of sameness and otherness in different cultures and the issues that one can have when trying to be the same. This book shows how a terrorist is defined is dependent on whose face you are looking at based on your own individual history. I recommend this book to fans of historical fiction and world events. Readers of literary fiction will enjoy this poetic story with the universal themes of humanity and characters finding a way to bring satisfaction to their individual lives. Reviewed by Beverly APOOO BookClub May 6, 2009

An epic masterpiece

This epic novel, which is on the shortlist for the 2009 Orange Prize for Fiction, chronicles the lives of four families, starting in Nagasaki in 1945 of the day the second atomic bomb was launched, and ending in post-9/11 North America. The book's one paragraph prologue actually takes place in a US prison cell in 2002, as an unidentified man is stripped of his clothing, and ordered to put on an orange jumpsuit, in preparation of his transfer to Guantánamo Bay. Hiroko Tanaka is a young, modern Japanese teacher who is fluent in multiple languages, who lives with her disgraced father in 1945 Nagasaki. She plans to marry Konrad Weiss, a German who has lived there before the start of World War II. In an instant, the world goes white, and her life is irrevocably changed. She travels to Delhi two years later, to meet Konrad's half-sister Elizabeth and her British husband James Burton. During her stay there, she meets Sajjad Ashraf, a local Muslim who is employed by Burton and who intends to become a lawyer like Burton. He teaches her the Urdu language, and the two become close, despite their different levels of status. Hiroko and Elizabeth become as close as sisters, and as the Burtons make plans to leave India, they assume that Hiroko will travel with them back to London. However, she and Sajjad have different plans. The families' relationships continue to intersect and intermingle for the remainder of the century, in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the United States, and tragic events in these two Middle Eastern countries before 9/11 and in the US and Canada afterward both enrich and strain the families' relationships within and toward each other. The ending is stunning, yet almost inevitable in retrospect. This story has unforgettable characters, and the historical events portrayed in the story are both enlightening and complex, with no simple answers or explanations. Highly recommended!

"Then the world goes white."

Shamsie's profound and troubling novel bridges the bombing of Nagasaki in 1945 to post-9/11 New York, when terrorism and distrust has defined a country's response to a terrible act. But the heart of the tale begins with language, with the sharing of one language with another, one culture with another. Out of this simple human connection comes a story of history, tragedy and loss. Hiroko Tanaka, a survivor of the bombing of Nagasaki, cannot find an answer to the question that haunts her: After Hiroshima, why a second bomb? Who makes such a decision? From that infamous day through 9/11, the acts of violence in the world are laid bare, countries in conflict, individuals searching for identity and meaning. Putting human faces on those who are affected, Shamsie draws a direct line between actions and actors, the intimate details of personal lives, the aspirations, beliefs and passions of individuals on a collision course with fate. Surviving Nagasaki with the images of three birds burned into her back, Hiroko has lost the man she loves, Konrad Weiss, a German. Konrad's sister, Ilse, is married to an Englishman, James Burton. Two years later, when Hiroko travels to India to meet Konrad's family, she has no idea that her future will be intricately twined with the Burton's, or that she will meet her future husband, Sajjad Ashraf, in their home. While the Burton's personify England's imperialism and arrogance, Hiroko views life through a different prism, a woman who has lost everything, even her home. History shifts once again, the British departing India on the cusp of the Partition and the swath of violence than ensues. Living in Pakistan with Sajjad, Hiroko's family remains inextricably linked with the Burton's through circumstance, future generations experiencing the reverberations of those connections as they make critical life choices. This novel opens a window into history, world events as significant as the characters; yet without these wonderfully nuanced characters it would be impossible to understand the ramifications of political evolution, the tangled web of nationalism and individual decisions, how a person can be absorbed, even twisted, by an idea. Bearing the scars of Nagasaki, Hiroko is history's witness, the eyes of humanity searching through the rubble of conflict, her family marked by her tragedy: "Hibakusha. It remained the most hated word in her vocabulary." Hiroko views her life, her grief, through the lens of that experience, a lifelong search for an answer. As time passes, the world grows smaller, from Japan and Nagasaki to India to Pakistan and New York, yet more complicated, more treacherous. Shamsie offers a compelling, disturbing reflection on a world that refuses to learn from the mistakes of the past, a heated response unleashed by fear, the human story writ large. Luan Gaines/2009.

A Necessary Read For A World That Humors Itself Civilized

I was lucky enough to get an advanced copy of this book and once I started, found I couldn't be away from it for too long until it was over. Since the summary of the plot line is already in this product description, I won't waste time on that (and I don't want to give anything away). I was incredibly moved by how far out of a judgmental mindset the author took me. Through her realistic and brutally honest portrayals of the ripple affect human atrocities towards each other cause I was touched in a way no other book about racism, tolerance, and world peace has ever managed to accomplish. There is never a moment of judgement towards one side or another, there is only truth and cold hard historical facts being relayed through the voices of her characters. The only biases are those that would be contained within the points of views of the character speaking. By the last pages, I found tears in my eyes as I found myself searching for a happy ending and confronting the realization that the cold honesty of this book maintains itself to the last word. This is not a book that is intended to be pleasant, or leave you with a warm fuzzy feeling inside. This is a book to make you question what you think you know. This is a book that, for me, inspired a moment of reflection and a deep desire to educate future generations about the consequences even one person can have upon the world. I recommend this book to anyone who wishes to educate themselves and look beyond their comfort zone. It has earned a place of respect on my book shelf.