KAMILA SHAMSIE is the author of five novels: In the City by the Sea, Kartography (both shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize), Salt and Saffron, Broken Verses and Burnt Shadows, which was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and has been translated into more than 20 languages. She is a trustee of English PEN and Free Word, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and one of Granta's 20 Best Young British Writers of 2013. She grew up in Karachi and now lives in London.
PRAISE FOR KARTOGRAPHY "[Shamsie] packs her story with the playful
evidence of her highflying intelligence." --San Francisco Chronicle
"A gorgeous novel of perimeters and boundaries, of the
regions-literal and figurative-in which we're comfortable moving
about and those through which we'd rather not travel . . .
Shamsie's wry humor infuses and quickens the narrative, leavening
even the most serious scenes without detracting from their
emotional weight." --Los Angeles Times "E. M. Forster's famous
plea--'only connect'--reverberates passionately throughout this
forceful tale of childhood, love and the power of story-telling."
--The Independent "[In Kartography] words are used as vehicles
conveying both emotions and intelligence, while at the same time -
because the whole novel hinges on a secret that is hidden from the
narrator--Shamsie knows that words aren't exactly everything,
either." --The Guardian
"Deftly woven, provocative . . . Shamsie's blistering humor and ear
for dialogue scorches through [a] whirl of whiskey and witticisms."
--The Observer "The descriptions of Karachi were so graphic I could
feel the heat and the tension emanating from the pages of the
book...Gripping and thought-provoking." --BBC.com "A shimmering,
quick-witted lament and love story...This is a complex novel,
deftly executed and rich in emotional coloratura and wordplay."
--Publishers Weekly, starred review "[Kartography] leaves you
feeling wistful and touches some place in your heart you didn't
even know existed...Even though the story came to a magnificent end
yet you wish [Shamsie] hadn't finished the book." --The Rumpus --
The trauma of war is typically gauged by loss of lives and property, not broken hearts, but the microcosm is often as powerful an indicator of loss as the macrocosm-or so Shamsie seems to say in her latest novel, a shimmering, quick-witted lament and love story. Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, is a place under constant siege: ethnic, factional, sectarian and simply random acts of violence are the order of the day. This violence-and the lingering legacy of the civil war of 1971-is the backdrop for the story of Raheen and Karim, a girl and boy raised together in the 1970s and '80s, whose lives are shattered when a family secret is revealed. The two friends and their families are members of the city's wealthy elite, personified in its shallowness by family members like Raheen's supercilious Aunt Runty and in guilty social conscience by Karim himself. This is a complex novel, deftly executed and rich in emotional coloratura and wordplay (the title is inspired by Karim's burgeoning obsession with mapmaking, and spelled with a "k" after the city's name). Shamsie pays homage to Calvino with a pastiche of Invisible Cities written by Raheen at her upstate New York college. But Shamsie's novel deals more with ghosts than cities: ghosts of relationships, ghosts of childhood, ghosts of love. A ghost is said to haunt a tree where Raheen's father-once engaged to Karim's mother-carved their initials long ago. Two ghosts representing Karim and Raheen walk an invisible city in Raheen's Calvino tribute. As someone said to Raheen: "There's a ghost of a dream you don't even try to shake free of because you're too in love with the way she haunts you." In similar fashion, Raheen remains in love with Karachi, family and friends, even as one by one their facades crumble. (Aug.) Forecast: Shamsie's cerebral, playful style sets her apart from most of her fellow subcontinental writers. Something of a cross between Arundhati Roy and Salman Rushdie, she deserves a larger readership in the U.S. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
PRAISE FOR KARTOGRAPHY "[Shamsie] packs her story with the
playful evidence of her highflying intelligence." --San
Francisco Chronicle "A gorgeous novel of perimeters and
boundaries, of the regions-literal and figurative-in which we're
comfortable moving about and those through which we'd rather not
travel . . . Shamsie's wry humor infuses and quickens the
narrative, leavening even the most serious scenes without
detracting from their emotional weight." --Los Angeles
Times "E. M. Forster's famous plea--'only
connect'--reverberates passionately throughout this forceful tale
of childhood, love and the power of story-telling." --The
Independent "[In Kartography] words are used as
vehicles conveying both emotions and intelligence, while at the
same time - because the whole novel hinges on a secret that is
hidden from the narrator--Shamsie knows that words aren't exactly
everything, either." --The Guardian
"Deftly woven, provocative . . . Shamsie's blistering humor and ear
for dialogue scorches through [a] whirl of whiskey and witticisms."
--The Observer "The descriptions of Karachi were so
graphic I could feel the heat and the tension emanating from the
pages of the book...Gripping and thought-provoking." --BBC.com "A
shimmering, quick-witted lament and love story...This is a complex
novel, deftly executed and rich in emotional coloratura and
wordplay." --Publishers Weekly, starred review
"[Kartography] leaves you feeling wistful and touches some place in
your heart you didn't even know existed...Even though the story
came to a magnificent end yet you wish [Shamsie] hadn't finished
the book." --The Rumpus --
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