In her novel “Home Fire,” Kamila Shamsie creatively reimagines Sophocles’ play “Antigone” in the context of British Muslims. Shamsie grew up in the 1970s in the Karachi, Pakistan. Shamsie attended university in the United States at Hamilton College and earned an MFA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and moved to the United Kingdom. Shamsie is a part of a new wave of Pakistani writers based in Great Britain, who balance their Muslim identity with Western values. Centuries apart, “Antigone” and “Home Fire” both address themes of belonging and borders.
Sophocles’ “Antigone” grapples with the collision of civil and divine law. Antigone’s brothers, Polyneices and Eteocles, fight and kill each other to be king. The new king, Creon, brands Polyneices a traitor and issues a decree forbidding his burial. Trapped above ground, Polyneices roams purgatory. Creon values order in his city and enforces rational justice, drawing a firm line between good and bad. Antigone, by contrast, sides with her family and religion. She commits a “crime of reverence” to properly bury Polyneices and honor Hades. Shamsie masterfully brings this ancient dilemma into the modern day.
Shamsie’s “Home Fire” follows a Pasha family living in London. After the death of their parents, the oldest child, Isma, raises her twin siblings, Parvaiz and Aneeka. Parvaiz decides to follow his jihadi father’s footsteps and join ISIS. Regretting his choice, Parvais tries to escape and dies in the crossfire. A Creon-like figure, the U.K. Home Secretary Karamat Lone denaturalizes Parvais and refuses to repatriate his body. Similar to Antigone, Aneeka is headstrong and gives her middle finger to the establishment. She remains loyal to her brother and travels to Pakistan to insist Parvaiz is returned to the U.K. for burial.
Shamsie divides the novel into five sections by character. I enjoyed this structure because it provides insight into the internal battles of each protagonist. Isma, the voice of compromise and compliance, observes the environment as well as the people around her. Shamsie’s beautiful and neat prose, injected with humor, rich sensory detail and sad-truths, shifts into stunted and scattered sentences for Aneeka’s chapter. A hot-tempered firebrand, Aneeka is consumed in her own spiraling thoughts. Her feelings of anger and grief jump off the page. The Parvaiz chapters give readers an opportunity to understand young adults who are drawn to militant groups. Burnt-out by neighborhood bullies, Parvaiz struggles to find purpose. One day, among empty crates in the back of a greengrocer, a stranger approaches him. The stranger reveals his connection to Parvaiz’s father and shares stories of their fight for justice. This information stimulates feelings of belonging. Isma, Aneeka and Parvaiz balance two worlds. One is intertwined with shared history, grievances and faith where as the other is defined by borders and citizenship.
In an interview with The Jakarta Post, Shamsie explained her motivation for writing “Home Fire.”
“The idea started because a theater director asked me to think about re-writing the Ancient Greek play ‘Antigone’ in a contemporary British context,” Shamsie said. “When I read the play — which has at its center two sisters who respond differently to the legal repercussions of their brother’s act of treason — I knew immediately that I wanted to connect it to a story that was very much in the news at the time, that of young British Muslims and their relationship with the British state.”
Shamsie writes “Home Fire” in the context of challenges to Muslim citizenship. In recent years, the British government’s legislation to revoke citizenship on national security grounds left countless Muslims “stateless.” The case of Shamima Begum, born in the U.K. to parents of Bangladeshi heritage, generated national attention when the U.K. stripped Begum of her citizenship and barred her from returning after the Islamic State smuggled 15-year-old Begum to Syria. Shamsie’s novel speaks to the discriminatory and unlawful use of U.K. citizen-stripping powers.
Shamsie’s modern adaptation of “Antigone” addresses hot-button themes of loyalty, identity and borders. She uses the framework of ancient tragedy to call attention to current issues of state authority and individual rights. This novel is unique in its perspective and formula. The blending of ancient tragedy and modern experiences of loss and resilience captivated my attention. I recommend this novel to any student looking to expand their worldview. Shamsie includes a quote in the epigraph from “Antigone” that beautifully encapsulates the timeless conflict between religion and citizenship: “The ones we love are enemies of the state.”
Rating: 5/5
