Kamila Shamsie

An enthralling collection of new and classic tales of the fearsome Djinn, from bestselling, award-winning and breakthrough international writers. Imagine a world filled with fierce, fiery beings, hiding in our shadows, in our dreams, under our skins. Eavesdropping and exploring; tormenting us, saving our souls. They are monsters, saviours, victims, childhood friends. And they are everywhere. On street corners, behind the wheel of a taxi, in the chorus, between the pages of books. Every language has a word for them. Every culture knows their traditions. Every religion, every history has them hiding in their dark places. There is no part of the world that does not know them. They are the Djinn. With stories from Neil Gaiman, Nnedi Okorafor, Amal El-Mohtar, Catherine Faris King, Claire North, E.J. Swift, Hermes (trans. Robin Moger), Jamal Mahjoub, James Smythe, J.Y. Yang, Kamila Shamsie, Kirsty Logan, K.J. Parker, Kuzhali Manickavel, Maria Dahvana Headley, Monica Byrne, Saad Hossain, Sami Shah, Sophia Al-Maria and Usman Malik.

________________'This anthology will help turn your intellectual understanding of oppression into an emotional one' - New Statesman'Thanks for being who you are and for giving us such exposure to wonderful people. Palestine is proud of you' - Suad Amiry________________The Palestine Festival of Literature was established in 2008. Bringing together writers from all corners of the globe, it aims to help Palestinians break the cultural siege imposed by the Israeli military occupation, to strengthen their artistic links with the rest of the world, and to reaffirm, in the words of Edward Said, ‘the power of culture over the culture of power’.Celebrating the tenth anniversary of PalFest, This Is Not a Border is a collection of essays, poems and stories from some of the world’s most distinguished artists, responding to their experiences at this unique festival. Both heartbreaking and hopeful, their gathered work is a testament to the power of literature to promote solidarity and courage in the most desperate of situations.Contributors: Susan Abulhawa, Suad Amiry, Victoria Brittain, Jehan Bseiso, Teju Cole, Molly Crabapple, Selma Dabbagh, Mahmoud Darwish, Najwan Darwish, Geoff Dyer, Yasmin El-Rifae, Adam Foulds, Ru Freeman, Omar Robert Hamilton, Suheir Hammad, Nathalie Handal, Mohammed Hanif, Jeremy Harding, Rachel Holmes, John Horner, Remi Kanazi, Brigid Keenan, Mercedes Kemp, Omar El-Khairy, Nancy Kricorian, Sabrina Mahfouz, Jamal Mahjoub, Henning Mankell, Claire Messud, China Miéville, Pankaj Mishra, Deborah Moggach, Muiz, Maath Musleh, Michael Palin, Ed Pavlic, Atef Abu Saif, Kamila Shamsie, Raja Shehadeh, Gillian Slovo, Ahdaf Soueif, Linda Spalding, Will Sutcliffe, Alice WalkerWith messages from China Achebe, Michael Ondaatje and J. M. Coetzee________________'Every literary act, whether it is a great epic poem or an honest piece of journalism or a simple nonsense tale for children is a blow against the forces of stupidity and ignorance and darkness … The Palestine Festival of Literature exists to do just that – and I salute it for its work. Not only this year but for as long as it is necessary' - Philip Pullman

Set in the turbulent decade of the 1940s, The Women's Courtyard provides an inverted perspective on the Partition. Mastur’s novel gives expression to the preoccupations of the women in the courtyard, fighting different battles with loud voices. The novel follows a Muslim girl, Aliya, and her family, about and around the climax of the Independence struggle. While the national struggle rages on the street, Aliya, Aunty and the residents of the courtyard are tethered hopelessly to their own problems of life and death. The Women’s Courtyard is an experience in suffocation. Within the strict religious and social framework of a rigid Muslim family, there is a purdah between Aliya and the rest of the world.

_______________'A boisterous tribute to her home town that crackles with the chaos of Pakistani political life' - The Times'Deftly woven and provocative ... Shamsie's blistering humour and ear for dialogue scorches through their whirl of whisky and witticisms' - Observer'You will notice very quickly that you're reading a book by someone who can write … Above all, Kartography is a love story. And if you're not sniffling by, or in fact on, page 113, you're reading the wrong book' - Guardian_______________BY THE ACCLAIMED WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2018SHORTLISTED FOR THE JOHN LLEWELLYN RHYS PRIZE_______________For a second I was almost jealous of the clouds. Why was he looking to them for an escape when I was right here beside him?Raised in the upper echelons of Karachi society, Karim and Raheen’s friendship is one of light and laughter. Their families, lives and destinies have been ostensibly intertwined since birth. However, as the spool of fate unwinds, a heavy silence grows between these two once-inseparable friends, culminating in a reckoning with the history of both their families and their country. A masterpiece of mirth and tragedy, Kartography is an exhilarating meditation on the decaying nature of silence and the pain of detachment, and a reminder that the past is never quite as distant as it seems._______________'Perceptive, funny and poignant' - Times Literary Supplement'A touching love story, with the city of Karachi beating at its heart' - Daily Mail'A gorgeous novel of perimeters and boundaries, of the regions – literal and figurative – in which we’re comfortable moving about and those through which we’d rather not travel' - Los Angeles Times

_______________'Beautifully written in cunning, punning, glancing prose' - Independent'A whirlwind … Owes plenty to Salman Rushdie and some to Hollywood … Exuberant, knowingly exotic and deceptively serious' - Guardian'Kamila Shamsie has created a rich, bright world' - Times Literary Supplement_______________Coming back to Karachi is like stepping into the sea again after months on land.Aliya finds herself constantly enraptured by her family’s unsettling legends. These are troublesome stories, tinged by the Dard-e-Dil’s fear that they are cursed by their ‘not-quite’ twins. As she becomes romantically intertwined with a boy from the wrong side of the tracks, Aliya begins to see links between herself and her scandalous aunt Mariam, which may spell her undoing.A tale of family lore, secrets and forbidden love, Salt and Saffron is an awe-inspiring novel written with compassion, wryness and glittering prose._______________'A funny, clever and romantic story' - Barbara Trapido'The stories within the stories describe Pakistani society, its peoples and its mores, better than anything that has come from the Other Side for a long time. This is a good read' - India Today

For every bullet shot by an oppressor there springs to life a starHasan lives an idyllic childhood of abundance: of pomegranates and cricket and ostensible serenity. This illusory veneer of calm is shattered when his beloved uncle Salman, a dissenting politician in a land shackled by a militaristic regime, is charged with treason, under possible penalty of death.Written with melancholic lyrical beauty and urgency, In the City by the Sea examines the loss of childhood innocence under political oppression.

‘A profound novel about friendship. I loved it to pieces’ MADELINE MILLER** SHORTLISTED FOR THE INDIE BOOK AWARDS 2023 ** PICKED AS ONE OF THE SUNDAY TIMES' BEST PAPERBACKS OF 2023** CHOSEN AS A BOOK TO LOOK OUT FOR BY THE GUARDIAN, BBC, OBSERVER, DAILY MAIL, IRISH TIMES AND FINANCIAL TIMES **Sometimes it was as though the forty years of friendship between them was just a lesson in the unknowability of other people…In 1988, as Pakistan is on the brink of political overhaul, two fourteen year-old girls are on the brink of womanhood. Their Arcadian days of secrets, laughter and a shared love for George Michael are brought crashing down when a snap decision at a party changes their lives forever.Years later in London, Zahra and Maryam are women with money, power and influence. They are both, however, still haunted by that night all those years ago.Insightful and unsettling, Best of Friends employs sumptuous prose to unpick the seams of a forty-year friendship and illuminate the ripple-like effects of power and history. 'An epic story that explores the ties of childhood friendship, the possibility of escape, the way the political world intrudes into the personal, all through the lens of two sharply drawn protagonists' Observer

_______________'A richly woven novel … The voice that guides us around this world darts with wit and lightness in a way that is unique and often lovely' - Rana Dasgupta, Guardian'The plot gallops along, ensuring a gripping read … thought-provoking' - Independent'A highly accomplished novel … A multi-layered but shrewdly simple tale' - New Statesman, Books of the Year_______________BY THE ACCLAIMED WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTIONWhen I can bear no more of separation, when I have learnt all that absence can teach me of desire, the walls will shimmer and I will step out of the mirage, into your arms.Fourteen years after the disappearance of her fearless, beautiful mother, Samina, Aasmaani clings onto the dream of her return, refusing to believe she is dead. Now grown up and living in the bustling chaos and rich culture of modern-day Karachi, she receives longed-for proof that her mother is still alive, and the seed of her hope germinates. In her search for the truth of what really happened all those years ago, an unexpected romance will flower and the questions that have plagued her for years will be answered.Broken Verses is a deeply moving account of love, loss and motherhood, asking us to reconcile all that we believe about our families._______________'An elegant, challenging novel about love, loss and deception … vibrant' - Daily Mail'Sparkling prose and formidable wit' - Daily Telegraph

BY THE WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION'A magnificent novel: beautiful, terrible, true … It reads already like a classic' - Ali SmithShortlisted for the Baileys Women’s Prize for FictionGrief never leaves, it merely sinks into you.Summer, 1914. Young Englishwoman Vivian Rose Spencer is in an ancient land, about to discover the Temple of Zeus, the call of adventure, and love. Thousands of miles away a twenty-year-old Pathan, Qayyum Gul, is learning about brotherhood and loyalty in the British Indian army.Summer, 1915. Viv has been separated from the man she loves; Qayyum has lost an eye at Ypres. They meet on a train to Peshawar, unaware that a connection is about to be forged between their lives – one that will reveal itself fifteen years later when anti-colonial resistance, an ancient artefact and a mysterious woman will bring them together again.A jewel-like story of the destruction of war and the serendipitous nature of fate, A God in Every Stone traverses the globe into the heart of empires fallen and conquered, demonstrating our place in the chaos of history.

_______________WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION WINNER OF THE LONDON HELLENIC PRIZEA BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE GUARDIAN, OBSERVER, TELEGRAPH, NEW STATESMAN, EVENING STANDAND AND NEW YORK TIMES_______________‘The book for our times’ - Judges of the Women’s Prize'Elegant and evocative ... A powerful exploration of the clash between society, family and faith in the modern world' - Guardian'Builds to one of the most memorable final scenes I’ve read in a novel this century' - New York Times_______________For girls, becoming women was inevitability; for boys, becoming men was ambitionIsma 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 worlds 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._______________NOW A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK AT BEDTIMESHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL DUBLIN LITERARY AWARDSHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA NOVEL AWARD 2017SHORTLISTED FOR THE DSC PRIZE FOR SOUTH ASIAN LITERATURE 2018LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2017

_______________'A formidable arching tale about loss and foreignness' - Financial Times'Powerful, epic yet skilfully controlled … Shamsie's voice is clear and compelling, with a welcome sparseness' - Guardian'Completely authentic, complex, and breath-stopping' - Emma Thompson_______________SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORANGE PRIZEBY THE ACCLAIMED WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTIONHere was one who would squeeze the sun in her fist if she ever got the chance; yes, and tilt her head back to swallow its liquid light.August 9th, 1945, Nagasaki. Twenty-one year old Hiroko Tanaka steps out onto her veranda, wearing an embroidered kimono ahead of her marriage to Konrad Weiss. In a second of destruction and senseless violence, everything Hiroko has known and loved is decimated. The scars, both literal and metaphorical, will stay with her forever.Attempting to escape this devastation, Hiroko travels to Delhi, encountering the bloodshed of an India undergoing Partition. As the years unravel, surnames change, new places become home and old wars are seamlessly usurped by new conflicts.A novel of tremendous scope, across land and time, Burnt Shadows perceptively demonstrates the far and unyielding reach of the tentacles of war and displacement, and the irrevocable wounds of the past._______________'Shamsie achieves the near impossibility of a truly intimate epic tale … I challenge anyone to put this book down lightly' - Shami Chakrabarti, Observer, Books of the Year'A giant of novel … Beautifully realised' - Independent

A fun and fearless anthology of feminist tales, by sixteen bestselling, award-winning writers.'Wonderful . . . all killer, no filler' Red Magazine'Dazzling stories, as inventive as they are inspiring' Daily Mirror'Where power and feminist rage meet' StylistBANSHEE. DRAGON. TYGRESS. SHE-DEVIL. HUSSY. SIREN. WENCH. HARRIDAN. MUCKRAKER. SPITFIRE. VITUPERATOR. CHURAIL. TERMAGANT. FURY. WARRIOR. VIRAGO.For centuries past, and all across the world, there are words that have defined and decried us. Words that raise our hackles, fire up our blood; words that tell a story. In this blazing cauldron of a book, sixteen bestselling, award-winning writers have taken up their pens and reclaimed these words, creating an entertaining and irresistible collection of feminist tales for our time.STORIES BY: Margaret Atwood, Susie Boyt, Eleanor Crewes, Emma Donoghue, Stella Duffy, Linda Grant, Annie Hodson, Claire Kohda, CN Lester, Kirsty Logan, Caroline O'Donoghue, Chibundu Onuzo, Helen Oyeyemi, Rachel Seiffert, Kamila Shamsie, Ali Smith, with an Introduction by Sandi Toksvig

Palkitun kirjailijan tarkkanäköinen kuvaus kahden naisen ystävyydestä on matka 80-luvun Pakistanista nyky-Lontooseen. Maryam ja Zahra jakavat syvimmät salaisuutensa ja ihastuksen George Michaeliin. Kun Pakistanin diktatuuri romahtaa, maailma vaikuttaa avautuvan. Vuosikymmeniä myöhemmin Maryam ja Zahra asuvat Lontoossa. Heitä sitoo yhteen pitkän ystävyyden lisäksi muisto eräästä illasta kauan sitten. Siitä ei ole koskaan puhuttu ääneen. Päättyykö ystävyys kohtalokkaan valinnan seurauksena?

"A profound novel about friendship. I loved it to pieces." --Madeline Miller "A shining tour de force about a long friendship's respects, disrespects, loyalties and moralities." --Ali Smith From the acclaimed author of Home Fire, the moving and surprising story of a lifelong friendship and the forces that bring it to the breaking point Zahra and Maryam have been best friends since childhood in Karachi, even though--or maybe because--they are unlike in nearly every way. Yet they never speak of the differences in their backgrounds or their values, not even after the fateful night when a moment of adolescent impulse upends their plans for the future. Three decades later, Zahra and Maryam have grown into powerful women who have each cut a distinctive path through London. But when two troubling figures from their past resurface, they must finally confront their bedrock differences--and find out whether their friendship can survive. Thought-provoking, compassionate, and full of unexpected turns, Best of Friends offers a riveting take on an age-old question: Does principle or loyalty make for the better friend?

'A profound novel about friendship. I loved it to pieces' MADELINE MILLER CHOSEN AS A BOOK TO LOOK OUT FOR BY THE GUARDIAN, BBC, OBSERVER, DAILY MAIL, IRISH TIMES AND FINANCIAL TIMES Maryam and Zahra. In 1988 Karachi, two fourteen-year-old girls are a decade into their friendship, sharing in-jokes, secrets and a love for George Michael. As Pakistan's dictatorship falls and a woman comes to power, the world suddenly seems full of possibilities. Elated by the change in the air, they make a snap decision at a party. That night, everything goes wrong, and the two girls are powerless to change the outcome. Zahra and Maryam. In present-day London, two influential women remain bound together by loyalties, disloyalties, and the memory of that night, which echoes through the present in unexpected ways. Now both have power; and both have very different ideas of how to wield it… Their friendship has always felt unbreakable; can it be undone by one decision? An epic story that explores the ties of childhood friendship, the possibility of escape, the way the political world intrudes into the personal, all through the lens of two sharply drawn protagonists' Observer

'Wonderful . . . all killer, no filler' Red Magazine'Dazzling stories, as inventive as they are inspiring' Daily Mirror 'Where power and feminist rage meet' Stylist______________________________A fun and fearless anthology of feminist tales, by fifteen bestselling, award-winning writers:Margaret Atwood, Susie Boyt, Eleanor Crewes, Emma Donoghue, Stella Duffy, Linda Grant, Claire Kohda, CN Lester, Kirsty Logan, Caroline O'Donoghue, Chibundu Onuzo, Helen Oyeyemi, Rachel Seiffert, Kamila Shamsie and Ali Smith - introduced by Sandi Toksvig. DRAGON. TYGRESS. SHE-DEVIL. HUSSY. SIREN. WENCH. HARRIDAN. MUCKRAKER. SPITFIRE. VITUPERATOR. CHURAIL. TERMAGANT. FURY. WARRIOR. VIRAGO. For centuries past, and all across the world, there are words that have defined and decried us. Words that raise our hackles, fire up our blood; words that tell a story.In this blazing cauldron of a book, fifteen bestselling, award-winning writers have taken up their pens and reclaimed these words, creating an entertaining and irresistible collection of feminist tales for our time.'A slick collection of clever tales, with something for bluestockings and banshees alike' Guardian'Delightful, thought-provoking' Louisa Young, Perspectives

** SHORTLISTED FOR THE INDIE BOOK AWARDS 2023 ** CHOSEN AS A BEST BOOK OF 2022 BY THE GUARDIAN, OBSERVER, DAILY MAIL, FINANCIAL TIMES AND IRISH TIMES ** ‘A profound novel about friendship. I loved it to pieces’ - Madeline Miller 'A shining tour de force' - Ali Smith, Guardian Summer Reading 'An intimate study of the ties that bind us' - Stylist _______________ A dazzling new novel of friendship, identity and the unknowability of other people - from the international bestselling author of Home Fire, winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction Sometimes it was as though the forty years of friendship between them was just a lesson in the unknowability of other people… Maryam and Zahra. In 1988 Karachi, two fourteen-year-old girls are a decade into their friendship, sharing in-jokes, secrets and a love for George Michael. As Pakistan’s dictatorship falls and a woman comes to power, the world suddenly seems full of possibilities. Elated by the change in the air, they make a snap decision at a party. That night, everything goes wrong, and the two girls are powerless to change the outcome. Zahra and Maryam. In present-day London, two influential women remain bound together by loyalties, disloyalties, and the memory of that night, which echoes through the present in unexpected ways. Now both have power; and both have very different ideas of how to wield it… Their friendship has always felt unbreakable; can it be undone by one decision? _______________ 'A new Kamila Shamsie novel is always worth celebrating, but Best of Friends is something else: an epic story that explores the ties of childhood friendship, the possibility of escape, the way the political world intrudes into the personal, all through the lens of two sharply drawn protagonists' - Observer, Books of the Year 2022

On the farm, some eggs are hatching. A flock of sweet ducklings are popping out but one duckling looks different from all the others.Kamila Shamsie retells The Ugly Duckling with great empathy and a warm heart. Cast out and all alone, the odd duckling will need all her bravery and curiosity to survive. Her journey is a search for belonging, but what she finds is the right to be different.

Kamila Shamsie retells 'The Ugly Duckling'. A Fairy Tale Revolution is here to remix and revive our favourite stories. 'A duck unlike other ducks. A raincloud-duck, with the heart of a lion, who struck out into the world on her own...'On the farm, some eggs are hatching. A flock of sweet ducklings are popping out. But one duckling looks different from all the others... Cast out and all alone, this odd duckling will need all her bravery and curiosity to survive. Her journey is a search for belonging, but what she finds is the right to be different.