Burnt Shadows - Kamila Shamsie

'She had not thought of destination as much as departure, wheeling through the world with the awful freedom of of someone with no one to answer to...a figure out of myth...who loses everything and is born anew in blood.'
Hiroko Tanaka was an ordinary woman in love with her fiance. On August 5th, 1945, she steps out to an ordinary day and smiles at her new beginning. Decades later she stands at a window in her apartment in the USA and thinks about all the years in between; trying to figure out just where it was that her world completely changed.

Kamila Shamsie is one of those rare writers who manage to not only draw you in from the very first line, but somehow find the perfect spot; hitting you with thoughts and feeling that you are never really prepared for. Burnt Shadows is her latest and most ambitious novel and in my opinion really shows her development as a writer and a person. Indeed that is the very heart of her message...that in the end nothing stands still. Her characters are not stagnant and each makes his own journey, adapting to a new life and making the best of whatever curve fate throws at them. What the reader takes away is not that in this world some live and some die; but that the concept of life is survival; not victory - there can be no victory in life.

She does not make this claim lightly but draws her observation from various characters from Japan to India to Pakistan and even Afghanistan and America. Through the eyes of the brave Hiroko Tanaka we see the destruction of the Japanese in WWII, the heartache of the Partition in 1947 and the aftermath of 9/11. What's interesting to note is that this novel cannot be characterized as a historical. While the details of events are always accurate the emphasis of the story remains with the characters and how they deal with the chaos of the world. Hiroko carries the harsh reminder of the cranes from her kimono, branded onto her shoulders that morning in Nagasaki. Yet amidst the harshness and despite the bitter reminder of her past, she will find love, work, children and her life will always go on.

Through all the characters Shamsie introduces, Konrad, Hiroko, Sajjad, Raza and Kim; their shattered dreams and their sacrifices; their love and their mistakes but most importantly their struggle to make a mark in the world.

It is a definite must read; beautiful and fluid and heartwarming.

The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

Claire: I wait for him. Each moment I wait feels like a year, an eternity. Each moment is as slow and transparent as glass. Through each moment I can see infinite moments lined up, waiting. Why has he gone where I cannot follow?

The first time Claire met Henry was when she was 6 years old and he was 36. The first time Henry met Claire was when he 28 and she was 20. 

This is a story of love above, beyond, through and surpassing time. It shows how the two will find each other time and again and capture fleeting moments of happiness before Henry's genetic condition pulls him yet again to an unexpected alternative timeline. It's a struggle for normalcy where fate throws them towards chaos over and over again.


It is a question of determinism vs free will as Henry is forced to watch his life over and over through time and is unable to do anything to change his life, or Claire's. Reading this book made me wonder if either one of them had a choice to walk away from this insanity. When Claire met Henry he was already married to her in his own time. And by the time he meets Claire, she is desperately in love with him...or rather who he will become. This infinite loop and paradoxical fate was so tragic at times. What was interesting to note was the title. The main character is not Henry even though the story is mostly from his point of view. Rather the very beginning makes you realize that its about Claire; who got a very raw deal and there was no way that it could have been any different. 


I have not seen the movie as yet. I doubt I will. It wont be able to capture the emotion of the book. The book is too subtle to be portrayed as a movie. The poignancy in the book is not the plot...but the subtext that connects you to Claire's life, her dreams and her waiting...always waiting. 


I do not get pointless grief. and there I disagreed with so many concepts in the plot. It was nicely written and certainly appealing, but I don't know...I feel let down by the author. 


Read it. Let me know what you think because despite it all; it's a book that begs to be discussed.