3.0
Best of Friends
ByPublisher Description
“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 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?
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities260 Reviews
3.0
Chloe
Created 11 days agoShare
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Pilar Girvan
Created about 1 month agoShare
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“This was a novel of dualities; friendship and fracture, power and vulnerability, fear and defiance. At its heart is the story of Maryam and Zahra, two Pakistani girls whose bond is shaped by the constraints of girlhood in 1980s Karachi and tested by the freedoms and compromises of adulthood in London. It felt deeply attuned to the contemporary moment, offering an urgent political commentary alongside the fictional plot. Shamsie interrogates state power, undemocratic systems, and the uneasy relationship between capitalism and justice. “Power respects power, whether it comes from ballot boxes or bullets” (p. 62), a truth that resonates across the novel’s political and personal landscapes.
Shamsie also explores the gendered nature of fear, articulated as “girlfear,” a condition stitched into the skin, an ever-present hum of vulnerability: “It’s not just fear, it’s girlfear... Boys don’t have it the same way” (p. 127). I thought Kamila Shamsie captured the complexities of female friendship, the weight of political consciousness, and the uneasy interplay between personal ambition and ethical responsibility in a believable and sensitive manner.”
Sarah✨ ☕️
Created about 2 months agoShare
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“Everything I hate about contemporary Pakistani literature somehow made its way into this book. Not surprised.”About Kamila Shamsie
Kamila Shamsie is the author of several previous novels, most recently Home Fire, which won the Women’s Prize for Fiction, was longlisted for the Booker Prize, and was a finalist for the International Dublin Literary Award, the Costa Novel Award, and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, among other honors. She was raised in Karachi and lives in London.
Other books by Kamila Shamsie
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