For our April meeting, we read the books of Kamila Shamsie who was born in 1973 in Karachi, where she grew up and moved to the USA as a young woman. She has a BA in Creative Writing from Hamilton College in Clinton, NY and an MFA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

For years Shamsie spent equal amounts of time in London and Karachi, while also occasionally teaching creative writing at Hamilton College in New York State. She now lives primarily in London.

Kamila has been awarded many prizes and awards which can be viewed at:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamila_Shamsie

Her nine books are listed on these sites:

 https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/168076.Kamila_Shamsie

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/authorpage/kamila-shamsie.html

An article by Kamila in the Guardian can be found here:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/may/01/kamila-shamsie-books-fiction-women

We collectively read the following three books:

Burnt Shadows (2009)

Home Fire (2017)

Best of Friends (2022)

The author writes of complex situations including multigenerational family relationships, coming of age relationships, friendships, national politics, boy-fear, capitalism, human rights and Islam. We saw the author as writing with a good turn of phrase and having a good eye for detail even if at times there was a loose structure or slow pace. We all enjoyed having read her books.