Burnt Shadows is a hugely ambitious novel, with a wide canvas and tackling some mighty themes. Kamila Shamsie's writing is so good though that it all works well. From the opening first chapter I was captivated by the characters and their worlds. We see Nagasaki in the aftermath of the atomic bomb in 1945, and where the book gets it title - an image I'll not get rid of for some time. From there we move to India during Partition and later Pakistan as Hiroko and Sajjad make a new life for themselves. In the 1980's we follow a frustrated angry young man to the mountains of Afghanistan and glimpse the world of the Mujaheddin. The fortunes of these characters seem to come full circle then in New York in the aftermath of 9/11 and the early days of the war in Afghanistan, when there is a chilling inevitability about the ending. This is an enormously readable unforgettable novel which I will be recommending to everyone I talk to about it.