32. Home Fire by Kamala Shamsie

listened on Chirp
276 pgs.

2017
Adult realistic fiction
Finished 4/10/24
Goodreads rating: 4.03
My rating: 4
Setting: contemporary Massachusetts, London, Syria

My comments: I started this once, ages ago, but restarted from the beginning in one of my trying-to-fall-asleep sessions.  And it didn't go in any sort of direction that I thought it would.  This is a story that makes you think.  And tremble.  Terrorism.  Families.  Religious beliefs, and religious fanatics.  Patriotism.  Governments.  This is a tragic story, but what I'm sure is very, very real to thousands of people in our world.  I keep going back to thoughts about religious beliefs.  I look at what's going on in America right now, the huge differences between conservatism and liberalism.  Just like the hug differences between Hasidic Jews, reformed, and cultural Jews, and the vast differences between ultra religious Muslims and more liberal Muslims..... Political beliefs and religious beliefs all lumped together.  REALLY tough story, hard to rate.  I usually like stories that flip-flop between points-of-view and though I did not particularly care for it in this case, but to see all the different sides is definitely the best way for this story to be told.  

Goodreads synopsis:  Isma is free. After years of watching out for her younger siblings in the wake of their mother’s death, she’s accepted an invitation from a mentor in America that allows her to resume 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. When he resurfaces half a globe away, Isma’s worst fears are confirmed.

Then Eamonn enters the sisters’ lives. Son of a powerful political figure, he has his own birthright to live up to—or defy. Is he to be a chance at love? The means of Parvaiz’s salvation? Suddenly, two families’ fates are inextricably, devastatingly entwined, in this searing novel that asks: What sacrifices will we make in the name of love?

The suspenseful and heartbreaking story of an immigrant family driven to pit love against loyalty, with devastating consequences.