Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie

Although the play Antigone by Sophocles was written over 2000 years ago, many of its central ideas still remain relevant in the present time. This is shown in Kamila Shamsie’s modern-day retelling of the play, Home Fire, which explores similar themes in the context of two British-Muslim families during the rise of ISIS. The book begins by following Isma Pasha to Massachusetts, where she is completing her PhD, and while there she meets Eammon Lone, son of British-Muslim politician, Karamat Lone. Although both are from British-Muslim families, the differences far outweigh their similarities. Isma and her two siblings, Parvaiz and Aneeka, live in a middle-class London neighborhood made up primarily of immigrants and are very connected to their Muslim identity. Eammon, on the other hand, comes from a very affluent family and is largely disconnected from his father’s Pakistani heritage. This

is largely because of Karamat Lone’s desire to hide that part of himself in his political life due to the anti-Muslim sentiment in Britain. Isma’s family also struggles with this a lot because their father left the country to fight for ISIS and was labeled as a terrorist by the British government before he died in prison. After Eammon returns home, he develops a relationship with Isma’s sister, Aneeka, despite their differences. Later, though, it is revealed that Aneeka only did this because she wanted her brother, Parvaiz, who had left to join ISIS, to come home to Britain. A theme that is central to the majority of the conflicts in Home Fire is that of identity and, more specifically, identity in the face of hate and discrimination. Becuase this book takes place post 9/11 and during a time when Islamic extremist groups were growing mroe powerful in the Middle East, it also caused a rise in Islamaphobia not just in Britain but in many other countries as well, including the United States. In Home Fire, each character deals with this racism differently. For example, Karamat Lone responds by trying to become better than many by becoming a politician and mostly erasing his background in the process. To contrast this, Parvaiz experiences racism and harassment regularly and becomes involved with ISIS to try to prove himself. Although this book takes place ten years ago, many of the political conflicts ocurring are still happening today to some extent and to go along with that, many of the social issues faced by the charatcers are still happening as well.