Genre and Setting

“Best of Friends” is character driven literary fiction, set against a political and cultural backdrop of Pakistan in the late 1980s and then London around 2019. 

Theme

Female friendship, explored in all its complexity and nuance over a long period of time. 

Perspective

The narrative is split into sections that are told from two different third-person perspectives – that of ‘best friends’ Maryam and Zahra. 

Structure

The first half of the book takes place when Maryam and Zahra are 14-year-olds in Karachi in the late 1980s, against the backdrop of General Zia’s death and Benazir Bhutto’s election. It then jumps more than 30 years and across the globe, to London in 2019, where the women have carved out and cultivated lives and careers for themselves in Britain. 

Where is the conflict?

While they remain friends, the women’s outlooks on politics, family, love, ethics and even the shared events of their own history differ in subtle but important ways. When two figures from their Karachi past resurface in their London present, the women are gradually forced to confront their differences, and it is the exploration of these differences that drives the drama and feeling of the book.

Author voice

Kamila Shamsie was herself born in Karachi in 1973 – the same year as her two main characters, moved to London in 2007 and is now a dual national of the UK and Pakistan, and her writing bears the specificity, weight but also playfulness of intimate understanding of her two characters. 

Pace

Medium to fast with a distinct acceleration towards the end as events catch up with the two main characters. 

Style

There’s a perfect balance here between a sometimes wry meditation on political and cultural events in Pakistan and London, and a close portrait of the two main characters told through their observations of and reactions to the world and events around them. 

My personal reaction

It took me a little while to become thoroughly grabbed by the slightly slower paced beginning and the teenage characters, though I did from the start love and admire both the writing style and the portrait of Karachi life from their perspectives. It was following the shift to the present day with the focus then being on the adult characters that I got absolutely hooked and my reading sped up. By the last few sections, I could not stop thinking about the story when I had to put it down, and kept thinking about it after the last page was done. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Who would enjoy this book?

Anyone who like exploring characters in a truly nuanced way, through masterful prose and management of character perspective. Anyone who wants to see a nuanced female friendship played out over decades. Anyone interested in the setting of Pakistan in late 1980s and London in 2019, particularly around the themes of women’s experience in multiple realms: the street, power, politics, ambition, home, love and friendship.

Quotes

Why didn’t whatever was going to happen just happen? She couldn’t bear another day of normal life in which nothing was normal. The most unexceptional acts – passing the salt shaker to your father – could suddenly feel weighted with significance. What if they took him awaya nd you never passed him a salt shaker again?

‘Best of Friends’, Kamila Shamsie. p57.

In that moment, she stopped standing outside the circle of men, conscious that she shouldn’t be here, and slipped into the scene. She had walked into the city’s arms, and it had embraced her – such a straightforward interaction, why had she never understood it before? She planted her elbows on the plywood tabletop. If a car were to drive up with two girls in it, they’d look at her and Maryam and know that women could claim this space, this outdoor life, this city.

‘Best of Friends’, Kamila Shamsie. p129.