#Dublin Award shortlist 2019 Kamila Shamsie

• Author: Kamila Shamsie
  
• Title: Home Fire
  
• Published: 2017
• #DublinLiteraryAward2019
• List of Challenges 2019
• Monthly plan
• PREDICTION:  this book is MY choice for Dublin Literary Award 2019!

 

Awards:

1. Man Booker Prize Nominee for Longlist (2017)
2. Costa Book Award Nominee for Novel (2017)
3. Australian Book Industry Award (ABIA) Nominee for International Book (2018)
4. Women’s Prize for Fiction (2018)
5. Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Fiction (2017)

 

Shortlist: 4/10 ( not wasting my time on 6 selected books, sorry)

UPDATE:

• Reservoir 13 – J. McGregor – READ – (…review Lisa)
• Home Fire – Kamila Shamsie – READ (immigrants…review Brona)
• Exit West – M. Hamid – NOT reading (review Lisa, Brona) (..enough of Middle-Eastern city)
  
• Lincoln in the Bardo – George Saunders – READ (review Brona)
• Midwinter Break –  Bernard MacLaverty– READ  (review Brona)
  
• Compass –  M. Énard – NOT reading – Prix Goncourt 2015  (review Reese)
  
• Idaho –  Emily Ruskovich – NOT reading (family epic, rugged Idaho)
• A Boy in Winter –  Rachel Seiffert – NOT reading  (WWII, review Lisa)
• History of Wolves –  Emily Fridlund – NOT reading – (review Lisa)
• Conversations With Friends – S. Rooney  NOT reading (…had enough of Rooney)

 

MY SHORTLIST  …books I think should have been shortlisted 0/6

• Brother –  David Chariandy –  (Powerful, bold and timely, Canadian)
• Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine –  G. Honeyman –  (review Reese)
  
• The Hate U Give –  A. Thomas –  (..must read this, NYT Bestseller YA novel))
• Tin Man –  Sarah Winman –  (review Lisa)

 

Quickscan:

1. Home Fire is a contemporary
2. re-imagining of the Greek tragedy Antigone
3. …in 5 acts…locations.
4. Setting: The novel is set in five locations:
5. London; Amherst, Massachusetts,
6. Istanbul,  Raqqa, Syria and Karachi, Pakistan
7. Structure: The book is divided into 5 parts.
8. Characters: In each part one character
9. Isma – elder sister, raised twins when their mother died
10. Eamonn – son Home Secretary, lover Aneeka
11. Parvaiz – twin, jihadi
12. Aneeka – twin,  law student
13. Karamat Lone  – Home Secretary
14. speaks to the  reader
15. …we are the chorus in a  Greek play!
16. Theme: The theme is resistance.
17. Aneeka refuses to obey the law
18. Aneeka defies British Home Secretary Karamat Lone
19. …who stated that a jihadi may not return to UK …dead or alive.
20. Climax: Aneeka keeps vigil by her brother’s coffin in public park – protest!
21. Symbol: soil
22. With a dust mask on her face, dark hair a cascade of mud
23. onlookers hear a deep howl…a howl Aneeka
24. calls up from the earth through her into the office of the Home Secretary
25. …watching on the TV
26. She scrapes some dirt with her fingernails
27. to properly bury her brother.
28. Aneeka choose her dignity and
29. …that of her brother above her happiness.

 

Last thoughts:

1. The novel tries to stay close to the original plot of Antigone.
2. Shamsie has been able to include the
3. theme of civil disobedience
4. into a modern setting with
5. …explosive political (jihad, ISIS) undertones.
6. The book has been reviewed by
7. …so many readers it is impossible
8. to add more praise than it has accrued.
9. Strong point: IMO  Act 3 Parvaiz was the most impressive.
10. Shamsie revealed why how Parvaiz was groomed to
11. leave his home to answer the call of Jihad.
12. Two years after publication
13. …this book is still very confronting.
14. The so-called caliphate of Islamic State, also known as Isis,
15. in Iraq and Syria is defeated but remains a threat.
16. Countries must engage in a delicate balancing act between
17. legal obligations and political correctness.
18. Strong point: thought provoking
19. …I had to think long and hard….
20. how families must feel
21. losing their children to the Islamic state.
22. #Devastated