Burnt Shadows

by Kamila Shamsie

How to explain to the earth that it was more functional as a vegetable patch than a flower garden, just as factories were more functional than schools and boys were more functional as weapons than as humans.

only the fat from their bodies sticking to the walls and rocks around them like shadows.

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Days – no, weeks – after the bomb and everything still smelt of burning.

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an Indian, introducing the English to the history of India, which was his history and not theirs. It was a surprising thought, and something in it made him uneasy. He had thought the world would change around him but his own life would stay unaffected. ‘India

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‘My history is your picnic ground,’

Konrad had been right to say barriers were made of metal that could turn fluid when touched simultaneously by people on either side.

‘Why have the English remained so English?

But when the English leave, they’ll be going home.’

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‘You can read this diagonal script, can’t you? Any man could. It says, “Stay away. This isn’t what you want.”

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