Customer Reviews

Burnt Shadows

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Shamsie's profound and troubling novel bridges the bombing of Nagasaki in 1945 to post-9/11 New York, when terrorism and distrust has defined a country's response to a terrible act. But the heart of the tale begins with language, with the sharing of one language with another, one culture with another. Out of this simple human connection comes a story of history, tragedy and loss. Hiroko Tanaka, a survivor of the bombing of Nagasaki, cannot find an answer to the question that haunts her: After Hiroshima, why a second bomb? Who makes such a decision? From that infamous day through 9/11, the acts of violence in the world are laid bare, countries in conflict, individuals searching for identity and meaning. Putting human faces on those who are affected, Shamsie draws a direct line between actions and actors, the intimate details of personal lives, the aspirations, beliefs and passions of individuals on a collision course with fate.

Surviving Nagasaki with the images of three birds burned into her back, Hiroko has lost the man she loves, Konrad Weiss, a German. Konrad's sister, Ilse, is married to an Englishman, James Burton. Two years later, when Hiroko travels to India to meet Konrad's family, she has no idea that her future will be intricately twined with the Burton's, or that she will meet her future husband, Sajjad Ashraf, in their home. While the Burton's personify England's imperialism and arrogance, Hiroko views life through a different prism, a woman who has lost everything, even her home. History shifts once again, the British departing India on the cusp of the Partition and the swath of violence than ensues. Living in Pakistan with Sajjad, Hiroko's family remains inextricably linked with the Burton's through circumstance, future generations experiencing the reverberations of those connections as they make critical life choices.

This novel opens a window into history, world events as significant as the characters; yet without these wonderfully nuanced characters it would be impossible to understand the ramifications of political evolution, the tangled web of nationalism and individual decisions, how a person can be absorbed, even twisted, by an idea. Bearing the scars of Nagasaki, Hiroko is history's witness, the eyes of humanity searching through the rubble of conflict, her family marked by her tragedy: "Hibakusha. It remained the most hated word in her vocabulary." Hiroko views her life, her grief, through the lens of that experience, a lifelong search for an answer. As time passes, the world grows smaller, from Japan and Nagasaki to India to Pakistan and New York, yet more complicated, more treacherous. Shamsie offers a compelling, disturbing reflection on a world that refuses to learn from the mistakes of the past, a heated response unleashed by fear, the human story writ large. Luan Gaines/2009.

I was lucky enough to get an advanced copy of this book and once I started, found I couldn't be away from it for too long until it was over. Since the summary of the plot line is already in this product description, I won't waste time on that (and I don't want to give anything away). I was incredibly moved by how far out of a judgmental mindset the author took me. Through her realistic and brutally honest portrayals of the ripple affect human atrocities towards each other cause I was touched in a way no other book about racism, tolerance, and world peace has ever managed to accomplish. There is never a moment of judgement towards one side or another, there is only truth and cold hard historical facts being relayed through the voices of her characters. The only biases are those that would be contained within the points of views of the character speaking. By the last pages, I found tears in my eyes as I found myself searching for a happy ending and confronting the realization that the cold honesty of this book maintains itself to the last word. This is not a book that is intended to be pleasant, or leave you with a warm fuzzy feeling inside. This is a book to make you question what you think you know. This is a book that, for me, inspired a moment of reflection and a deep desire to educate future generations about the consequences even one person can have upon the world. I recommend this book to anyone who wishes to educate themselves and look beyond their comfort zone. It has earned a place of respect on my book shelf.

Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie is an ambitious epic book that grabs you in the prologue, as an unnamed narrator is disrobed and left to wait naked with only a steel bench to sit on. His thought is - "How did it come to this." How stark is this setting - but the grace of the language warns you that this is a story that you want to see unfold.

The story spans 60 years and takes the reader to five different countries: Nagasaki, August 1945; Delhi 1947; Pakistan 1982-3; and New York/ Afghanistan 2001-2; and the connecting points for two families whose family members will have intimate knowledge of the destruction of war. It all starts in the morning of August 9, 1945 before the bomb was dropped on Nagasaki and we are introduced to schoolteacher, Hiroko Tanaka and a man from Berlin, Konrad Weiss. Both are looking forward to the end of the war so that life gets back to normal and they can be wed. But history has other plans, and Hiroko whose language skills has her working for the Americans during the occupation. Unable to work closely with the "terrorists" who have invaded her country, she flees to Delphi to Konrad's sister. Hiroko is the one character that is present throughout the book and helps thread the book themes together.

This is an elegantly written story that allows the reader to understand how history affects our relationships with each other, Sometimes history defers relationships and others relationships survive despite the history. In each of the major parts of the book - there are historical events that are well known but what is not known is how it affects individuals who only want "to farm their land and raise their families." There are themes of sameness and otherness in different cultures and the issues that one can have when trying to be the same. This book shows how a terrorist is defined is dependent on whose face you are looking at based on your own individual history.

I recommend this book to fans of historical fiction and world events. Readers of literary fiction will enjoy this poetic story with the universal themes of humanity and characters finding a way to bring satisfaction to their individual lives.

Reviewed by Beverly
APOOO BookClub
May 6, 2009

Because I am a Japanese woman, I was prepared to be upset with the main character Hiroko being your stereotype Japanese girl because it was written by a Pakistani author. Hiroko was nothing like the girl I imagined, and yet I could see myself in her.

Burnt Shadows reminded me of innocent comments I've heard from Americans such as, "It( dropping Atomic Bombs) had to be done to save American lives".
After the Iraq War started, I've heard the similar opinions. Burnt Shadows explains the frustration and anger I feel whenever those otherwise very kind and caring people express their deeper belief of their superiority and disregards towards other parts of world. What I really wanted to tell, but was too afraid to open my mouth was, "Iraq didn't attack USA. Many of the dead are civilians. They were somebody's mother, daughter, father, sons, grandmothers, grandfathers, and grandchildren. You can't tell a heart-broken mother, whose child's head was blown off in front of her, to stop crying and be grateful and happy because US took care of Sadam".

[...]Reviewer Carolyn See wrote, "Her argument is that the British and American empires, through their conscienceless colonialism (and particularly America's use of the bomb), are responsible for the very troubled world we live in today". But, I don't think Shamsie was accusing Britain and USA for the world's every trouble. She just wants them to look into their souls once in a while. At least, that's how I read.

I wouldn't say Burnt Shadows is the best novel I've ever read. It has some problems such as the color of birds on Kimono and Hiroko's words in the end. I wish the characters were emotionally more attractive. Having said that, Burnt Shadow is definitely one of the most ambitious and intellectual attempts to make a case for those who never had a chance (maybe too ambitious to be successful). Because of its' imperfection, I believe it will generate a better discussion. Therefore, I give 5 stars despite the flaw.
It will be a great book for your book club.

This epic novel, which is on the shortlist for the 2009 Orange Prize for Fiction, chronicles the lives of four families, starting in Nagasaki in 1945 of the day the second atomic bomb was launched, and ending in post-9/11 North America.

The book's one paragraph prologue actually takes place in a US prison cell in 2002, as an unidentified man is stripped of his clothing, and ordered to put on an orange jumpsuit, in preparation of his transfer to Guantánamo Bay.

Hiroko Tanaka is a young, modern Japanese teacher who is fluent in multiple languages, who lives with her disgraced father in 1945 Nagasaki. She plans to marry Konrad Weiss, a German who has lived there before the start of World War II. In an instant, the world goes white, and her life is irrevocably changed.

She travels to Delhi two years later, to meet Konrad's half-sister Elizabeth and her British husband James Burton. During her stay there, she meets Sajjad Ashraf, a local Muslim who is employed by Burton and who intends to become a lawyer like Burton. He teaches her the Urdu language, and the two become close, despite their different levels of status. Hiroko and Elizabeth become as close as sisters, and as the Burtons make plans to leave India, they assume that Hiroko will travel with them back to London. However, she and Sajjad have different plans.

The families' relationships continue to intersect and intermingle for the remainder of the century, in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the United States, and tragic events in these two Middle Eastern countries before 9/11 and in the US and Canada afterward both enrich and strain the families' relationships within and toward each other. The ending is stunning, yet almost inevitable in retrospect.

This story has unforgettable characters, and the historical events portrayed in the story are both enlightening and complex, with no simple answers or explanations. Highly recommended!

To read Kamila Shamsie's novel 'Burnt Shadows' is to receive a new pair of eyes, for the author writes in such a way that the world is revealed differently to us; history and culture are written so starkly and beautifully that we see events from a different perspective. Shamsie's strength is writing about modern warfare and the effects of it in a way that is lyrical but also unforgiving. The images the writer conjures are horrifying, in a way that is both enticing and repulsive. The work is inspired and epic, moving across country lines and time zones and periods fluidly without any narrative hiccups. Shamsie writes characters that are relatable without being sappy, and dark times that have no gray areas. Big ideas abound: what it means to live in this time, what toll warfare has on its recipients - and Shamsie seamlessly integrates minute detail with large philosophical questions and themes. This book has a place in every library of every reader: it challenges; it doesn't coddle. This novel makes the reader think, it does not tell them what they want to hear. And it is this quality that makes 'Burnt Shadows' such a spellbinding piece of fiction.

Instead of repeating the sequence of events that are outlined in the blurb, I am going to skim the details. And for those of you who read my review of the new novel, "The Wish Maker", let me say that what I was hoping for in that novel has been deftly achieved here with Burnt Shadows. This novel's events begin with and then reflect upon the aftermath of the atomic bomb the USA dropped on Nagasaki in 1945 that alters Hiroko's life forever, and this is one of those stories that stays in your mind long after you read it. The novel follows Hiroko and her family as she moves from Nagasaki to Bombay, to Istanbul and to Karachi, Pakistan and ultimately to New York City; sadly, the wars of the nations following her.

The prose was just beautifully written and so very descriptive that I was easily imagining the landscape surrounding the characters. The grief from the loss of Hiroko's loved ones throughout the story was delicately palpable, without calling direct attention to it, yet the words are so powerful that I had to put the book down to savor the full meaning and to not lose the poetic prose of the moment.

Along with Hiroko, we also have Elizabeth and James Burton, and Sajjad who worked for the Burtons. The characters were all very well developed as the narration gracefully divides its time between all of the above characters. The Burtons' and Hiroko's lives become unexpectedly intersected upon the death of Konrad Weiss, Hiroko's first love in Nagasaki, and their new found relationship develops into a natural familial one. Sajjad then gets tangled among the web by falling in love with Hiroko and we feel pained for them as they each struggle to find a place in a society amongst a war torn country with its social conflicts between its political barriers. We easily transition from the different points of views of each of the characters, and I was pleased with how unbiased the view was on the war from the author; we see how each of the characters react to the effects of events so that we can better learn the truth of the political system and the cultural divides they faced. This novel spans generations, ending after the attacks of the Twin Towers in NYC. Although this event occurred during the timeline of the book, the author did not go into the details of the horrors, which is something that I was secretly glad for, due to being from New York that is indeed close to home.

I was very humbled and sorrowed in learning about the effects the Atomic bomb had on Nagasaki, when it was dropped in August of 1945. The followed quote from page 78 is regarding Hiroko to Sajjad, from just this one woman's point of view, when in reality it killed millions and affected many millions more:

"She could not tell anyone, not even this man with the gentle eyes and an understanding of the scent of the gods, how Yoshi had left her with the stone for a few minutes while he went in search of implements to dig with and she had lain down on Konrad's shadow, within Konrad's shadow, her mouth pressed against the darkness of his chest. 'Why didn't you stay?' she had whispered against the unyielding stone."

And the Burnt Shadows, which appear physically as burns in the shapes of birds on Hiroko's back, haunt Hiroko for the rest of her life, as she dreams of them and as she becomes an outcast due to the fact she survived the bomb, and millions did not. She is labeled as a Hibakusha, a victim of the bomb: she could have been carrying a disease and her child could have been also. In the story, when Hiroko is fearing for her teen-aged son Raza, the author writes: "The birds had their prey....She had not imagined the birds could fly outwards and enter the mind of this girl, and from her mind enter Raza's heart."

Along with Hiroko's life, we are following the story of The Burtons, and how these families befriend each other in the hard times and become friends for life, born in different countries, and with different nationalities, yet not really having a place to call home. Their offspring do not meet, yet they will always know that they are connected spiritually due to their parents' journeys together. It is their perceptions and their legacies that bring about the climax at the end of the book. There was a slow spot in the last third of the book, as the author was building up to the final moments and once we got there I found that the ending was a bit abrupt. I had not seen that exact outcome coming; I had a different mental picture that I thought was going to occur but I was wrong. It wasn't a bad ending, but I was a bit perturbed that I had gotten to the last sentence and yet still expected a bit more to be said. I guess I could have been selfish and just did not want the book end there, I had savored each sentence and let the story pull me in and I wasn't ready for such an ending.

This is definitely a book for the current events of our times; what can we learn from the wars and how can we turn this lesson into reaching something positive from the millions and millions of people that have been innocent victims? How should we consider national paranoia versus loyalty? Love versus hate? The author Kamila Shamsie has such a way of putting a sentence together which speaks volumes of the underlying nature; its multiple meanings dripping heavily from the words. Regret, remorse, grief, sorrow, symbolism and love shrouded in hope for a better future. This book leaves an imprint on your soul, much like the imprint the bomb left on Hiroko's scarred back. A definite recommended read.

3.5 STARS. Kamila Shamsie's "Burnt Shadows" is a multigenerational, historical novel, spanning almost sixty years. The reader is taken back in time to Nagasaki, Japan, on that fateful day in 1945 when the second atomic bomb was dropped, resulting in 20,000 deaths and over 50,000 people wounded. The first bomb was dropped a few days earlier in Hiroshima. The plot and characters move on to the terrible violence of the Partition of British India, 1947, which leads to the creation of the sovereign states of Pakistan and the Union of India. Approximately 500,000 people, Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs were slaughtered during the religious massacres which occurred then. The sweeping storyline carries the reader, along with a chain of characters, Japanese, British, American, Indian, Pakistani and Afghani, through the years, encompassing various personal and geopolitical events, including the acquisition of nuclear weapons by Pakistan and India, the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, the mujahideen fighters who were taught by the CIA to repel the Soviet enemy, the brutal fighting and bombing of Kosovo, al Qaeda and the Taliban, 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq. The characters' lives are interwoven into these historical periods, as are their fates.

The book's recurring theme is man's inhumanity to man. If Death were a character here, how busy he/it would be, picking up souls from all the dead - their deaths needlessly caused by inhumanity and lust for power, riches and religious fanaticism. One wonders at those who have the power and the means to drop nuclear weapons which can destroy a city full of innocent people, and scar their descendents for generations to come. Again, one can only wonder at those with the power and means to draw borders between peoples to create artificial nations, which divide these same peoples further - by nationality, ethnicity and/or religion. And who are these people, with so much power, that they can devise and realize a heinous plan to fly airplanes into skyscrapers filled with fellow human beings?

The brief prologue is set in an unknown prison in the frist years of the 21st century. A young man is unshackled and told to strip. He suspects that he will soon be dressed in an orange jumpsuit. His body shrivels in the cold damp cell. This is an era of enhanced interrogation - torture. He wonders, "How did it come to this?"

We travel back in timer to Nagasaki, Japan. It is the summer of 1945. Hiroko Tanaka, a young schoolteacher living in Nagasaki, is in love with Konrad Weiss, a German artist and scholar who attempts to discover how Eastern and Western civilizations might live together in harmony. Hiroko speaks German and she met Konrad while translating for him soon after his arrival in Nagasaki. He came to Japan because his half-sister, Ilse, (Elizabeth), and her husband, James Burton, members of the British colonial community residing in Delhi, would prefer not to be associated with a German relative while WWII rages throughout Europe.

Hiroko believes that the war will end quickly, and soon she and Konrad will be together in a world where "there will be food and silk....and she will never have to enter a munitions factory or a bomb shelter again." As soon as the war ends "there will be a ship to take her and Konrad far away." She steps out onto her balcony, wrapped in a kimono with a design of three swooping black cranes on the back. "And then the world goes white!" The burned imprint of those cranes will remain on Hiroko's back for the rest of her life. And she does live, although seriously burned, ill with radiation poisoning, and a poisoning of the soul. Konrad, on the other hand doesn't make it. Hiroko is now a "hibakushi," a "bomb affectee," her new defining feature. Those nearest to the epicenter of the nuclear blast, like Konrad, were eradicated completely...."only fat from their bodies sticking to the walls and rocks around them" were left, "like shadows." Hiroko looks for Konrad's shadow and she finds it on a rock, or she finds comfort in believing it is his shadow. She rolls the rock to the cemetery and buries it there, along with her dreams.

Searching for a new beginning, Hiroko travels to Delhi two years later. There she enters the lives of Konrad's relatives, the Burtons. They accept her as Konrad's former fiancee, after doing a background check, of course. She also meets, Sajjad Ashraf, a young Muslim and legal apprentice who works for James Burton. He begins to teach her Urdu. The two eventually fall in love, despite the Burton's misgivings. Hiroko Tanaka is "Burnt Shadows'" protagonist and the reader views the new post WWII world through her eyes.

The threat, (or promise - depending on one's viewpoint), of Partition is ever present. Sajjad does not want to leave India, but the Burtons convince him to go with his new wife, Hiroko, to an old friend's house in Istanbul, Turkey, to keep safe until the violence subsides. When he tries to return to Delhi, however, the new Indian government won't let him back because the couple left during the Partition. Reluctantly, the Ashrafs move to Karachi, with Sajjad as a "mohajir," a derogatory term for refugees from India.

The plot becomes more complex as Raza, the Ashrafs' son, becomes involved with Afghani refugees and with the mujahideen who are fighting the Russians in the 1980's. It is at this time that the young man inadvertently becomes involved with the CIA. Harry Burton, son of James and Elizabeth, enters the story and also plays a prominent role.

As the various storylines surrounding the Burton and Ashraf families unfold, the years pass and the narrative moves between Pakistan, Afghanistan and New York City, with unforeseeable and lethal consequences. The surprise ending plays out in the months following 9/11. I don't want to include spoilers, but I was disappointed by the denouement. It seemed too hastily put together and I was left hanging in the air.

Although the author's prose occasionally reaches the poetic, the narrative is very slow at times, and the writing is uneven. As fascinated as I was by parts of the plot, I was very bored by others. I think Ms. Shamsie attempts to squeeze too much information into one book. I would have rated this novel 4 Stars, even with the literary shortcomings, but my boredom with major parts of the novel causes me to rate this with 3 or 3.5 Stars. I do recommend reading 'Burnt Shadows," especially for those interested in the historical period covered here.

Kamila Shamsie was born in 1973 in Karachi. Two of her previous novels, "Kartography" and "Broken Verses," have won awards from Pakistan's Academy of Letters. "Burnt Shadows" was a finalist for the Orange Prize.
Jana Perskie

Kartography
Midnight's Children: A Novel

I think it's important to note that the main characters in Kamila Shamsie's brilliant novel, Burnt Shadows, are Japanese, German and Pakistani Muslims. This is a book that deals with the political tensions between different nations, nationalities and ethnic groups, and within that context Shamsie succeeds in putting a human face on the US's three bitterest enemies of the past sixty years. It is an epic novel that spans all of those years - covering three generations and as many continents. And, a typical hazard of epic fiction, just when I found myself getting attached to one group of people and becoming invested in their storyline, the author moves on.

She is particularly skilled at creating memorable and sympathetic characters. I especially loved Hiroko, the Japanese woman who loses her German fiance in the bombing of Nagasaki, and thereafter moves to India to live with his sister (who has nearly disavowed her German identity) and her British husband. Hiroko is the personification of "ground zero," as she moves from her decimated home city after the bombing, to Delhi just before the acrimonious partition between India and Pakistan and, as a widow, to New York City in the years leading up to September 11. She is a most unusual and spirited creation and I was saddened when the author eventually moved her to the margins.

All the other characters, while not quite as impressive as Hiroko, are unique and believable. Even to the very end, when some very destructive choices are made, I was hard-pressed to lay blame. Shamsie demonstrates that we are all products of the times we live in and, since WWII, propaganda and fear-mongering have played a huge role in shaping society.

Shamsie's writing is concise and very readable. I found the pages flying by and what seemed to be, at the outset, a rather daunting read, went by very quickly.

Burnt Shadows demonstrates how circumstances, both personal and global, are often the result of a chain of events that, once set into motion, are all but impossible to stop. And by winning our empathy for her characters, she proves that, underneath it all, we are all much more alike than different.

Spanning seven decades, six countries, and four families, Burnt Shadows depicts a brilliant narrative that originates in Nagasaki in 1945. The poignant catastrophic apocalypse culminates in post 9/11 New York City.

Hiroko Tanaka, a proficient translator and schoolteacher is teaching Japanese to Konrad Weiss, her German fiancé. Leaving, he turns, and waves good-bye. Within a heartbeat and an atomic bomb, their world no longer exists. The crane pattern embedded in her back from her kimono is Hiroko's only memento.

Eventually, Hiroko travels to Delhi to meet Konrad's half-sister Elizabeth, and her pompous British husband, James Burton. Not her initial intent, nor James' desire, Elizabeth insists Hiroko stay until she may find a suitable place to utilize her linguistic skills. There, she meets Satjad Ashraf, James Burton's local Muslim employee. Burton manifests his superficial attestation of his munificence in their daily chess games. Sadly, Satjad believes that his employment will result in procuring a position as a lawyer.

An unexpected rapport develops between Hiroko and Satjad, and she asks him to teach her the Urdu language. Much to the dismay of Elizabeth, ignoring the social proprieties of class, their relationship deepens. As she discovers more about Konrad from Hiroko, Elizabeth also develops a close friendship with her.

With daily news reports of the Partition of India, the Burtons arrange their leave with the intention of inviting Hiroko (without Satjad), to join them. Despite protestations from his family, Satjad plans to leave with Hiroko. Aware of the dangers of a Muslim remaining in India, they travel to Pakistan. When he finally realizes he will not be able to return to India, his Dilli, this move creates a life-long sorrow for Satjad.

Sporadic relationships among these families endure, and the plot scenarios shift from country to country: Pakistan, Afghanistan, the United States, and Canada. Increasingly ominous events suggest disaster in the Middle East. Hiroko moves to New York City to live with Elizabeth. However, no safe place exists after 9/11. Trust and faith in fellow man no longer propel actions. Confusion and fear dominate decisions. These unforeseen variances affect relationships.

The conclusion, though shocking, was preordained. Kamila Shamsie has created a provocative and memorable novel overflowing with richly endowed characters who struggle to live and to love amidst the compelling history this book encompasses.

When I finished, I re-read the prologue and the poetry at the beginning of the book. I then realized I had come full circle.

Extraordinary book. One of the best I have read this year.