Burnt Shadows in Around the World in 80 Books

Jul 01, 2010 Elizabeth rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: new-york, afghanistan, india, fiction, japan, europe, asia

A twisting yarn of a book that struck me as something written fresh on the heels of 9-11. There were certain elements of the plot that I thought were probably even more impactful for readers who read this book a few years after that horrific event.

Beginning in Nagasaki, Japan, just before the second nuclear bomb drops, the story ventures to India, Turkey, Pakistan, and New York as it follows two families, one of German-English and another Japanese-Pakistani extraction. Lives mirror and intersec A twisting yarn of a book that struck me as something written fresh on the heels of 9-11. There were certain elements of the plot that I thought were probably even more impactful for readers who read this book a few years after that horrific event.

Beginning in Nagasaki, Japan, just before the second nuclear bomb drops, the story ventures to India, Turkey, Pakistan, and New York as it follows two families, one of German-English and another Japanese-Pakistani extraction. Lives mirror and intersect, and Shamsie makes some important observations about class and racial tension.

Because this book was recommended to me for my fondness for The Far Pavilions, I expected a grand, sweeping love story. No luck. The romance motif in this book is nothing like Ashok's fairy-tales. Instead the relationships are broken down jalopies, bravely forging ahead on unstable ground. On that negative note, one could also easily compare this novel to The Kite Runner for it's ties to the conflict in Afghanistan. For me, the Kite Runner is more straight-forwardly depressing. This book is much more thoughtful and introspective.

Ultimately, what was most interesting to me was the cultural soup of Japanese, German, British, Indian, Pakistani, and Americans that flavored the novel. My general takeaway was that the author wanted to show what happens when people choose to be nice to "the other", but still not treat them as equals--those actions have far-reaching, inhumane, humiliating consequences. I also thought that it was interesting to note that author dismisses the idea of using the personal element of a tragedy as the centerpiece of a larger tragedy...

Food for thought (Regarding Nagasaki):

"You lived it," Kim said. "our father died in it. Your fiance died in it. There's no shame in putting all the weight in the world on that."
It was the wrong answer.
Hiroko turned to her, face bright with anger.
"Is that why? That's why Nagasaki was such a monstrous crime? Because it happened to me?" She pulled the gloves off and threw them at Kim. "I don't want your hot chocolate," she said and stalked away.

This book brings up a lot of sediment to sift through. It wasn't always pleasant to read, but it was educational.
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Oct 12, 2009 Beverly rated it it was amazing

Shelves: historical-fiction, asia

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 200 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
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Jan 02, 2012 Madeleine rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: japan

I seem to have created a depressing little January tradition for myself: read a really sad book that is simultaneously about the atomic bombs + racial profiling in the wake of September 11th (see also: Hiroshima in the Morning). Burnt Shadows is heartbreaking, infuriating, beautiful. I find myself comparing it to The Kite Runner, but this is a much more complicated book. ...more

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Sep 19, 2009 Sunflower rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-read-2009, favorites

I agree with Salman Rushdie: "an absorbing novel that commands, in the reader, a powerful emotional and intellectual response". The story starts with Hiroko, one of the hibakusha, who has a talent for languages, and continues to link several generations of the same families in several countries and extra-ordinary ways. ...more

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Feb 10, 2018 Liz rated it it was amazing

Shelves: asian-indian-voices

“It was not the notion of power itself that interested Harry, but the idea of it concentrated in a nation of migrants. Dreamers and poets could not come up with a wiser system of world politics: a single democratic country in power, whose citizens were connected to every nation in the world. How could anything but justice be the most abiding characteristic of that country’s dealings with the world?”

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Aug 17, 2022 Anna rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Review to follow.

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Sep 26, 2013 Nikki Morse rated it it was amazing

I loved this book. It tells the story of interwoven families from the impact of the Atom bomb in Nagasaki, to Partition in India, to New York just past 9/11. It says so much about the impact of war and displacement, with vibrant, memorable characters. Definitely read this book next.

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Apr 10, 2011 Deedee rated it really liked it

Shelves: challenge-2011-spring, historical-fiction, usa-new-york-city, immigrants, literary-fiction, world-asia-india, orange-prize-nominee, world-middle-east, muslim, bailey-prize-nominees

Interesting, character-driven novel...... except for the last 50 pages; at which time, the author becomes dues ex machina, manipulating the characters and the action to make a political point about how, in the author's opinion, America is mistreating Muslims in the war on terror. I was set to give this 5 *'s until the last 50 pages. I found the character of "Kim" to be especially unbelievable.

Still, the first 300+ pages of the novel were very well written and very interesting. 4 *'s .... and I' ...more

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