Kamila Shamsie, the Karachi-born British Pakistani novelist, discusses her novel 'Best of Friends' which explores the complexities of childhood friendship between two Pakistani girls, Zahra and Maryam, and the challenges they face as they grow up and navigate their differences.
- British-Pakistani novelist Kamila Shamsie’s novel, ‘Best of Friends’, straddles Pakistan and the UK
- The book about the friendship of two girls travels between Zia-ul-Haq’s Pakistan and modern-day London
- What was Pakistan like in Zia’s time? How have things changed?
- How have things changed in the UK too? How do Muslims in Britain see themselves?
- Can childhood friendships survive in a polarised world where political rifts are becoming increasingly personal?
Karachi-born British Pakistani novelist Kamila Shamsie, who lives in London, has just published her novel, Best of Friends. The book follows two Pakistani girls, Zahra and Maryam, through their lives and explores whether their friendship can last. The backdrop to the novel begins in Karachi in 1988 when General Zia-ul-Haq is still president. It covers his death in a plane crash and then the euphoria at the prospect of Benazir Bhutto coming to power in democratic elections and her inauguration and how inspiring this was for these two girls, then aged 14. It then shifts to London in 2019 where the best friends have moved and are now grown-up, working. Naomi Canton interviews Shamsie, whose novel Home Fire was nominated for the Booker Prize and won the women’s prize for fiction.
Best of Friends is a story about the childhood friendship between two Pakistani girls Zahra and Maryam. What inspired you to write this? Did you draw on your own friendships? Do you think childhood friendships can and should last into adult life or do we change?