Kamila Shamsie Livres

From Pakistan' s most acclaimed young writer.

A new anthology project from renowned and beloved literary critic John Freeman, Freeman's: Arrival collects never-before-published writing from some of the best-known authors working today, each contributing a piece on the theme of "Arrival." Contributors include Haruki Murakami, Louise Erdrich, Dave Eggers, David Mitchell, Elena Ferrante, Kamile Shamsie, Sjon, Colum McCann, Daniel Galera, Aleksandar Hemon, Ghassan Zaqtan, Etgar Keret, Anne Carson, Tahmima Anam, Helen Simpson, Ishion Hutchinson. Garnette Cadogan, Barry Lopez, Ben Huff, Fatin Abbas, Michael Salu, Honor Moore, Lydia Davis and Laura van den Berg, and a photo essay introduced by Barry Lopez. Freemans: Arrival is an essential addition to the library of anyone interested in the best of contemporary fiction.

In Safely Gathered In, Sarah Schofield probes at the heart of what forms us and what we, in turn, form. The stories collected here expose the spaces that words often fail to reach and examine how objects - both manmade and natural - can reflect the darkest manifestations of grief and disconnection.

In this retelling of 'The Ugly Duckling', Kamila Shamsie explores themes of identity, transformation, and belonging. The story follows a character who grapples with feelings of isolation and the desire for acceptance, ultimately discovering their true self amidst societal expectations. Shamsie's narrative adds depth to the classic tale, infusing it with contemporary relevance and emotional resonance, making it a poignant reflection on the journey of self-discovery and the challenges of fitting in.

“Ingenious… Builds to one of the most memorable final scenes I’ve read in a novel this century.” —The New York Times WINNER OF THE 2018 WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION FINALIST FOR THE 2019 INTERNATIONAL DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE The suspenseful and heartbreaking story of an immigrant family driven to pit love against loyalty, with devastating consequences, from the author of the forthcoming novel Best of Friends 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?

Two years after her prospects are shattered by the bombing of Nagasaki, Hiroko Tanaka travels to Delhi in search of new beginnings and arrives in the home of her ex-fiance's half-sister, but she finds her circumstances halted by conflicts in the Middle East that prompt her family's eventual relocation to America.

Crib mates, raised together from birth, narrator Raheen and her best friend Karim dream each other's dreams, finish each other's sentences, speak in a language of anagrams. They share an idyllic childhood in upper-class Karachi with parents who are also best friends, even once engaged to the other until they rematched in what they jokingly call the fiancee swap. The night Karim's family migrates from Karachi to London, Raheen knows that some of my tears were his tears and some of his tears were mine. But as distance and adolescence split them apart, Karim takes refuge in the rationality of maps while Raheen searches for the secret behind her parents' exchange. What she uncovers takes us back two decades to reveal a story not just of a family's turbulent history but that of a country, and brings us forward to a grown-up Raheen and Karim drawn back to each other in the city that is their true home

BY THE WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION _______________ 'I can't recommend A God in Every Stone by Kamila Shamsie too strongly ... Exciting and, in the end, profoundly moving, this will solace you during the grimmest holiday' - Antonia Fraser, Guardian Summer Reading 'A magnificent novel: beautiful, terrible, true ... It reads already like a classic' - Ali Smith 'A moving story of love and betrayal, generosity and brutality, hope and injustice, full of characters that stay with you' - Financial Times _______________ Shortlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction Summer, 1914. Young Englishwoman Vivian Rose Spencer is in an ancient land, about to discover the Temple of Zeus, the call of adventure, and love. Thousands of miles away a twenty-year-old Pathan, Qayyum Gul, is learning about brotherhood and loyalty in the British Indian army. Summer, 1915. Viv has been separated from the man she loves; Qayyum has lost an eye at Ypres. They meet on a train to Peshawar, unaware that a connection is about to be forged between their lives - one that will reveal itself fifteen years later when anti-colonial resistance, an ancient artefact and a mysterious woman will bring them together again.

Maryam and Zahra. In 1988 Karachi, two fourteen-year-old girls are a decade into their friendship, sharing in-jokes, secrets and a love for George Michael. As Pakistan's dictatorship falls and a woman comes to power, the world suddenly seems full of possibilities. Elated by the change in the air, they make a snap decision at a party. That night, everything goes wrong, and the two girls are powerless to change the outcome. Zahra and Maryam. In present-day London, two influential women remain bound together by loyalties, disloyalties, and the memory of that night, which echoes through the present in unexpected ways. Now both have power; and both have very different ideas of how to wield it... Their friendship has always felt unbreakable; can it be undone by one decision?

_______________ 'Beautifully written in cunning, punning, glancing prose' - Independent 'A whirlwind ... Owes plenty to Salman Rushdie and some to Hollywood ... Exuberant, knowingly exotic and deceptively serious' - Guardian 'Kamila Shamsie has created a rich, bright world' - Times Literary Supplement _______________ BY THE ACCLAIMED WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION The Dard-e-Dils are characterised by their prominent clavicles and love of stories. Aliya may not have inherited her family's patrician looks, but she is prey to their legends that stretch back to the days of Timur Lang. There is a sting to most of these tales, for the Dard-e-Dils consider themselves cursed by their 'not-quite' twins. Amidst her growing attraction to a boy from the wrong side of the tracks, Aliya begins to believe that she is another 'not-quite' twin, linked to her scandalous aunt Mariam in a way that hardly bodes well... _______________ 'A funny, clever and romantic story' - Barbara Trapido 'The stories within the stories describe Pakistani society, its peoples and its mores, better than anything that has come from the Other Side for a long time. This is a good read' - India Today

Original stories from remarkable writers.