HOME FIRE by Kamila Shamsie wins 2018 Women’s Prize for Fiction
BLOOMSBURY INDIA is proud to announce that our author Kamila Shamsie is 2018 winner of Women’s Prize for Fiction
At an awards ceremony in Bedford Square Gardens in central London last night, Wednesday 6th June – hosted by novelist and Women’s Prize Founder Director, Kate Mosse – the 2018 Chair of Judges, Sarah Sands presented the 2018 Women’s Prize for Fiction to author Kamila Shamsie for her seventh novel, Home Fire. It is published by Bloomsbury, a leading, independent, worldwide publishing house which has won the prize (which was originally known as the Orange Prize and the Bailey’s Prize) twice in the past for Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels and The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller.
One of the six shortlisted titles this year also included Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward, also published by Bloomsbury.
WINNER OF THE 2018 WOMEN’S WRITERS PRIZE
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2017 MAN BOOKER PRIZE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA NOVEL AWARD
A CONTEMPORARY RETELLING OF SOPHOCLES’ ANTIGONE, HOME FIRE IS A POWERFUL,
URGENT TALE OF LOVE, POLITICS, FAMILY AND ENMITY, CONFRONTING ONE OF THE
DEFINING ISSUES OF OUR AGE.
While choosing Home Fire as the winner, Sarah Sands (chair of judges) commented:
“We chose the book which we felt spoke for our times … Home Fire is about identity, conflicting loyalties, love and politics. And it sustains mastery of its themes and its form. It is a remarkable book which we passionately recommend.”
Synopsis:
Isma is free. After years spent raising her twin siblings in the wake of their mother’s death, she is finally studying in America, resuming a dream long deferred. But she can’t stop worrying about Aneeka, her beautiful, headstrong sister back in London – or their brother, Parvaiz, who’s disappeared in pursuit of his own dream: to prove himself to the dark legacy of the jihadist father he never knew.
Then Eamonn enters the sisters’ lives. Handsome and privileged, he inhabits a London world away from theirs. As the son of a powerful British Muslim politician, Eamonn has his own birthright to live up to – or defy. Is he to be a chance at love? The means of Parvaiz’s salvation? Two families’ fates are inextricably, devastatingly entwined in this searing novel that asks: what sacrifices will we make in the name of love?
A contemporary reimagining of Sophocles’ Antigone, Home Fire is an urgent, fiercely compelling story of loyalties torn apart when love and politics collide – confirming Kamila Shamsie as a master storyteller of our times.
‘Kamila Shamsie is a writer of immense ambition and strength’
Salman Rushdie
‘In perfect harmony with the heartbeat of modern times. No novel could be as timely’
Aminatta Forna
‘Left me awestruck, on the edge of my chair, filled with admiration for her courage and ambition’
Peter Carey
About the author:
Kamila Shamsie is the author of six novels: In the City by the Sea (shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize); Salt and Saffron; Kartography (also shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize); Broken Verses; Burnt Shadows (shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction) and, most recently, A God in Every Stone, which was shortlisted for the Baileys Prize, the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. Three of her novels have received awards from Pakistan’s Academy of Letters. Kamila Shamsie is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was named a Granta Best of Young British Novelist in 2013. She grew up in Karachi and now lives in London.
About Women’s Prize for Fiction: One of the most prestigious literary awards in the world, the Women’s Prize for Fiction – previously known as the Baileys Prize for Fiction until 2016 and the Orange Prize for Fiction between 1996 and 2012 – celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in women’s writing from throughout the world. The winner receives a cheque for £30,000 and a limited edition bronze known as a ‘Bessie’, created and donated by the artist Grizel Niven. Both are anonymously endowed.