Product Description

`Its breadth and depth are wonderful...Beautifully paced, and delicately written;the past evoked with such lyricism and pain...it has such tenderness.'

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #539 in Books
• Published on: 2009-10-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Review
`This is an unnervingly ambitious canvas, but the quality of Shamsie's writing swiftly draws you in and proves strong enough to carry it. A tremendous, impressive and thoroughly enjoyable book' --Daily Mail

Review
'Burnt Shadows is audacious in its ambition, epic in its scope. A startling expansion of the author's intentions, imagination and craftsmanship. One can only admire the huge advances she has made, and helped us to make, in understanding the new global tensions.'

Review
'Kamila Shamsie is a writer of immense ambition and strength. She understands a great deal about the ways in which the world's many tragedies and histories shape one another, and about how human beings can try to avoid being crushed by their fate and can discover their humanity, even in the fiercest combat zones of the age. Burnt Shadows is an absorbing novel that commands, in the reader, a powerful emotional and intellectual response.'

Customer Reviews

One of this year's great reads
I was bowled over by this book, beautifully written from page 1, it was quite simply, wonderful. I can also add that, having just returned from discussing the book at a book group - all 8 of us were unanimous in our praise.

It has a huge canvas - from Nagasaki in 1945, through Partition in India, the 9/11 bombing and war in Afghanistan. Along the way it covers a multitude of subjects. These include the long term effects of radiation damage, training camps for the Muhajideen and the suspicions that fell on Muslim citizens in the US after the Twin Towers were attacked.

The characters were well drawn and very cleverly interwoven through several generations and across three continents.

I can see why some reviewers felt it attempted too much, the second half is pretty eventful. However, for me, the sheer joy of the beautiful language and (not excessive) descriptions, held me transfixed.

Very highly recommended - this could be my favourite book this year!

Some amazing writing, but the plot was too ambitious
I can't describe the plot of Burnt Shadows better than the blurb on the back cover of the book, so I have copied it here:

August 9th, 1945, Nagasaki. Hiroko Tanakasteps out onto her veranda, taking in the view of the terraced slopes leading up to the sky. Wrapped in a kimono with three black cranes swooping across the back, she is twenty-one, in love withthe man she is to marry, Konrad Weiss. In a split second, the world turns white. In the next, it explodes withthe sound of fire and the horror of realisation. In the numbing aftermath of a bomb that obliterates everything she has known, all that remains are the bird-shaped burns on her back, an indelible reminder of the world she has lost. In search of new beginnings, she travels to Delhi to find Konrad's relatives, and falls in love with their employee Sajjad Ashraf, from who she starts to learn Urdu.

As the years unravel, new homes replace those left behind and old wars are seamlessly usurped by new conflicts. But the shadows of history - personal, political - are cast over the entwined worlds of two families as they are transported from Pakistan to New York, and in the novel's astonishing climax, to Afghanistan in the immediate wake of 9/11.

Burnt Shadows is an epic book, spanning both generations and continents. There were many amazing sections in this book; the first chapter in particular was incredible, the subtle building of tension was brilliantly achieved, and the horror of the atomic blast, was sensitively written.

I loved the central character, Hiroko; she overcame so many tragedies, but remained a believable stalwart throughout. Some of her quotes were particularly thought provoking:

'Sometimes I look at my son and think perhaps the less we have to "overcome" the more we feel aggrieved.'

The female characters in the book were far superior to the male ones. They seemed to have a depth, and realness lacking in all the male ones.

My main grievance with this book was that the ambitiousness was too great; trying to capture so many different cultures in one book, led to too much explanation, at the expensive of the flow of the story. In many places the book came across as contrived. The plot seemed to have been forced around major historic events: Nagasaki, Indian Partition and 9/11. These events were so far apart, both in time, and distance that it didn't work for me. The credibility of the book just kept sliding away, the more I read. Would a 91-year-old lady really have travelled all the way from Asia to New York on her own, and then 'run around' New York like a person a quarter of her age?

Despite my criticisms there were many important issues raised by this book. The ambitiousness of this writing project deserves some recognition, and I wouldn't be surprised if this won the Orange Prize. I'll let you know once I've read all the other shortlisted books if I still think this is a contender.

Recommended for the first chapter, and a few other moments of genius, but be prepared to wade through some of the slower sections.

Sweeping, beauitful and bold; a must read
I loved BURNT SHADOWS. My friend recommended it to me after being kept up all night unable to put it down. I found it equally absorbing and was so happy to hear it has been shortlisted for the Orange Prize.

Hiroko Tanaka is a marvellously crafted character and throughout her journey you are taken from the devastating bomb blast in Nagasaki all the way to Afghanistan. I think this ambition is what made the book so special and worldy and significant. Since when has ambition been something to criticise? In this book the boundries of worlds and cultures become slippery and inter-connected, reminding us of the truly global nature of our existence and how we all must understand each other if we are to live together peacefully. The boldness of the narrative reflects this, but not only that, the writing is beautiful. There is one scene where Hiroko has just arrived in Delhi and begins to take Urdu lessons from a young man called Sajjid. She reveals her scars to him (the marks left forever on her back from the kimono she was wearing at the time of the bomb) and the way she describes how Sajjid touches them and how it makes Hiroko feel was truly exquisite.

This is a writer who reveals so much about our inner worlds and also our outer. Do be able to do both well is extremely difficult, and to do so in a way that is page-turning and exciting is almost impossible...

Please read this book!!!