Good read. Great characters, enjoyed the setting, lots of side stories weaved into it and it flowed really well. A good read for a rubbish day. Will make you feel better!

I loved Home Fire by this author and was incredibly excited to read this one but for a number of reasons it did not have the same impact for me as a reader. There is plenty to enjoy in this, Shamsie writes women with great warmth and realistically and I liked both of the main characters , Maryam and Zahra, who despite vastly different backgrounds, are best friends for most of their life. I really enjoyed the parts of the book set in Pakistan and the rich descriptions. and the book started so strongly. However once the timeline in the book switched, my interest waned a little . I enjoyed the exploration of friendship and how events can resonate decades later but I thought something was possibly lacking. Very much a book of two halves with the first half being the strongest for me. I was a little disappointed overall, despite the great writing and characters, the book just lost its spark for me and I had to force myself to read to the end. It lacked the magic that was spun through Home Fire.

The synopsis of this book sounded very interesting and made me want to explore it further. I found the first few chapters, up until the downfall of the dictatorship to be extremely interesting, especially as I was around the same age at that time. The narrative did seem overly long and the writing not very tight though, so much so that as the book went on and I struggled to stay focused. I did get to the end but only by skimming the final third of the book. A great idea but ultimately, not sufficiently engaging for me.

This is an enjoyable read that deals with some hard hitting issues in a compelling way. I found it a bit hard to get into at times but overall I still enjoyed reading it. The book is full of vivid descriptions and rich imagery and this is def a book that everyone should read.

The story of a long lasting friendship from childhood into adulthood. Unfortunately, I did not relate to the characters and found the storyline improbable and childish. Not for me

A novel of female friendship and coming of age the story is initially based in Karachi in 1988 when Maryam and Zarah are 14 and then moving to London in 2019 where the reader discovers how the girls experiences have shaped their lives and how their new found power affects their decisions and revenge and ultimately their friendship itself. I love the development of the two main characters and in particular the description of their childhood in Karachi. A novel dealing with many issues - immigration and politics , friends and family and how the expectation of these shape your life and decisions. I will certainly be reading more from this author. Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the ARC of this novel in return for honest review.

I'm torn with this one. I was quite enjoying it, quite engrossed and I kind of stopped for a few hours for my birthday and found it quite difficult to get back into afterwards but I can't say why. I really had to force myself to carry on, yet as I say I'm stumped as to why. It simply didn't sustain me in the end.

There's a lot of layers in this book: the story of a friendship and the story of a country at a turning point in history.
The author writes a vivid story, always fascinating and compelling. An excellent storyteller that keeps the attention alive and tell stories and a story.
I loved it and I think it's an important book that, I hope, lots of people will read.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I enjoyed this and it was compelling enough, although it seemed less "tight" and polished than Shamsie's previous work. (3.5 *s rounded up)

This is an interesting exploration of female friendship, loss, identity, culture and survival - as we follow the development of Zahara & Maryam - two opposite best friends from different backgrounds - as they grow up in Karachi and move to London.

Could be recommended to sixth form students, although CW for visa refusal/ deportation/ misogyny/ peril.

I loved Kamila Shamsie’s last novel, the 2018 Women’s Prize For Fiction winning “Home Fire” placing it at number 6 in my 2017 Books Of The Year. Although based on the Ancient Greek myth of Antigone it felt extremely relevant to our world. There were some big themes tackled and I said that the author “is educating, entertaining and gripping her readers in a manner which explores the potential of the plot in eye-opening, thought-provoking ways.”
No wonder I was looking forward to reading this. It feels a much less ambitious work, a quieter novel but it still managed to impress. The best friends are Zahra and Maryam and we first meet them in Karachi in 1988 as two fourteen year olds negotiating adolescence and kissing posters of George Michael. Their friendship has been strong for years, Zahra is keen to point out the difference between their own close bond with a word she has found in the dictionary “Propinquity- a relationship based on proximity” which is what they feel they have with others.
The first half explores the potential minefields of teenage life for two girls in late 1980s Pakistan excellently. It feels pitch-perfect, Zahra is coming to terms with physical changes and feelings, the awkwardness and newness of which will bring shudders of recognition. Maryam, more privileged, feels that her future is mapped out for the with a family leather goods business and a grandfather who sees in her the abilities to take the business on. She plays cricket with his employees, is popular and has more vision than her own father. The girls sense new beginnings with the ascendancy of Benazir Bhutto until an event takes them into an unexpected direction.
The second part of the novel takes us to London in 2019 where the friends are now living very different lives. How far are they the products of their past experience? The second half is unsurprisingly more political as they attempt to improve the adult world they felt let them down as teenagers, but will their friendship survive?
I loved the first half and enjoyed the second half but for me the novel’s strength is in their teenage Karachi days exploring the girls’ strongly forged friendship with all its intensities and experiences together with the limitations that their environment places on them. This feels magnified by the bombardment of the myriad mixed messages of their Pakistani upbringing which the author skilfully conveys.
Best Of Friends is published by Bloomsbury Circus on September 27th 2022. Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.

This is a rich, deeply evocative book about friendship, loyalty, and power. The prose draws out the facets of lifelong friendship superbly, whilst developing a sense of time and space beautifully, throughout the different eras and locations.

I think the plot drew out strong themes of revenge, victimhood, and betrayal really well, but unfortunately, was just a little too constructed to feel real and believable. It was a brave attempt at showing completely different angles to immigration and national identity, but something about the plot development fell short for me.

Nevertheless, it was a thought-provoking read, with moments of beauty found in the depiction of friendship.

This honest review is given with thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.

Kamila Shamsie's latest novel 'Best of Friends' beautifully explores the friction between the personal and political in a friendship that stretches across three decades and two continents.

We first meet Maryam and Zahra at the age of 14 in Karachi in 1988 in months spanning the death of President Zia and the election of Benazir Bhutto. Maryam comes from a wealthy and well-connected family and expects to inherit her grandfather's business in the future; Zahra is the daughter of a school principal and a well-respected sports journalist who courts controversy by failing to show sufficient deference to President Zia in one of his broadcasts. Zahra and Maryam's close friendship seems unaffected by their difference in social status but is placed under strain when Maryam starts seeing an older boy, Hammad, and a party that takes the place the day after Benazir Bhutto's inauguration has far-reaching repercussions for one of them.

We meet Maryam and Zahra again in London in 2019, still best friends over three decades later. Their professional lives have taken very difficult paths - Zahra is now a high-profile civil liberties campaigner while Maryam is a successful venture capitalist with close links to the right-wing government. Their friendship still appears strong enough to navigate their profound ideological differences until they are reunited with a figure from their past.

This is another extremely well-written novel from Kamila Shamsie with fully-developed characters and wonderful evocation of its two settings. It also engages seriously and thoughtfully with some of the most pressing political questions of our age, particularly the impact of technology on civil liberties and the treatment of immigrants and detainees: one of the most harrowing scenes involves a visit to a detention centre in which Zahra is shocked that she still has the capacity to be shocked at the degrading conditions inmates are forced to endure. Although Shamsie often invites us to share Zahra's outrage at the state of contemporary politics, there is real nuance in the way that she explores the trade-offs, compromises and rationalisations that become part of almost any long-term relationship. The novel asks what it means to be friends with someone who not only has different opinions from us but might also be trying to achieve objectives in their working life which are directly at odds with our own.

This, for me, was the novel's greatest strength. It has a lot in common with Shamsie's previous novel 'Home Fire', but I felt much of the novel feeling it lacked the same momentum: there are numerous moments where we expect a showdown between Zahra and Maryam and it doesn't come. However, I came to feel this was a very realistic depiction of the way that really close friends can put aside their differences most of the time. And when the confrontation finally does come, it feels as inevitable as it is devastating.

Overall, this is another powerful and important novel from a brilliant writer - thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC to review.

*I was provided with a free ebook copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

I am usually a big fan of this author's work but honestly, this book fell a little flat for me. It follows two girls growing up in Pakistan, as they are put in a dangerous situation by a man. The book then cuts to London, where both the girls have become successful in their careers. It goes on to look at how their experience effected them both negatively in different ways and the lengths people will go to to get revenge.

It was an interesting plot, but way too slow for the amount of stuff that actually happened and the chapters are super long. It just didn't hold my attention.

3/5 stars.

I absolutely adored Home Fires, which remains one of my favourite books, and this follow up did not disappoint. Kamila Shamsie is a brilliant and beautiful writer, whose characters and plots are rich, evocative and highly emotive. This is a phenomenal follow up to her incredible debut and deserves every accolade it receives.

Maryam and Zahra are best friends in 1980s Pakistan, despite their different backgrounds. This first part of the book is set against the background of Benazir Bhutto being elected, but a party held to celebrate this will set in motion events that will reverberate throughout their lives, as far as three decades later when they both live in London.

I preferred the first part of the book, when the girls were teenagers, rather than when they grew up. Overall I found this portrayal of female friendship fascinating - highly recommended.

4.5 stars

I'm drawn to books that centre on the theme of friendships. Each friendship is uniquely complicated and this is also the case here. The novel aroused some complicated feelings within me for a reason that I cannot explain, which, strangely enough, I enjoyed. Some reviews express disappointment and that they were let down after having read Shamsie's previous work. However, this is my first time reading Shamsie's literature, so perhaps the lack of expectation meant that I enjoyed it more.

Ouch. A radical warts and all dissection of the friendship ties that bind and how early friendships can form and affect your whole life. Two girls are friends in 1990s Pakistan, from different classes and with different aspirations who are caught up in an incident that has repercussions for their older selves, successful businesswomen in modern London. This books is written with a fierce clarity and affection, and the friendship reads so very true from the beginning to the end. Powerful stuff, read it and weep for the youthful friendships and their adult equivalents.

Maryam and Zahra are teenage girls growing up in Karachi in the late 1980s when Benazir Bhutto is democratically elected after the death of dictator General Zia. Both are inspired by the progressive future that thirty-five year old Bhutto seems to promise, but both are also dealing with the rise of what Maryam calls ‘girlfear’: the growing realisation that they cannot move through the world in the same way as men. And although they are close friends, both from relatively privileged backgrounds, they are at heart very different: wealthy Maryam is heir to her family’s leather business, dreaming of one day taking her grandfather’s place, while middle-class, idealistic Zahra wants to go to Cambridge and be a lawyer. The slow trace of desire and unease as the girls recognise their awakening sexuality is very well done, setting Best of Friends apart from many similar coming-of-age novels; as does the evocation of the particular experience of being a teenager in this place, in this time.

Kamila Shamsie’s previous novel, Home Fire, was remorseless and explosive; given that, I’m not surprised that she wanted to write something rather gentler, with lower stakes. Nevertheless, I liked the development of Maryam and Zahra’s relationship as they move away from their early years and become successful forty-something women in London. I’ve said before that Shamsie’s writing can be heavy-handed, and that isn’t totally absent here; sometimes she spells out exactly what she wants to say about friendship rather than letting the reader realise it. ‘Childhood friendship really was the most mysterious of all relationships… it was built around rules that didn’t extend to any other pairing in life’. However, there are also more thought-provoking observations, such as the description of two elderly women walking together that is allowed to speak for itself.

And while Maryam and Zahra at first appear to be differentiated rather schematically from each other, I thought both grew into much richer characters. I was especially heartened by how seriously Shamsie takes Zahra’s political and moral commitments. Writers often suggest that, when it really comes down to it, what’s ‘real’ is your love for your friends and family and that will always come first. That’s definitely Maryam’s view, but it’s not Zahra’s – or at least, her definition of those she loves stretches much further than those who are personally known to her. As Maryam and Zahra approach their moment of reckoning, it’s clear that what sets them apart isn’t jealousy or petty resentment but a real difference in their core values, which is so refreshing after reading so many novels like Anna Hope’s Expectation, which boil down problems in female friendship to grudges over men or children.

I didn’t think Shamsie quite hit the emotional climax she wanted to in this novel, but it’s an absorbing read that, for me, moves far away from the problems I had with her earlier historical fiction, Burnt Shadows and A God In Every Stone, even if it doesn’t quite reach the heights of Home Fire.

I was excited to get the opportunity to read this novel by this acclaimed author, a former women's fiction prize winner. The story starts in Karachi with political unrest and an unscrupulous government and 2 teenage girls trying to understand the changes that are happening to them and around them.
An incident then occurs that has a significant impact on both girls. The story then jumps 20 years or so and picks up with the success of the pair in London. It tells of their continued friendship despite being such different characters. The ending of the story is disappointing and seems rushed and poorly thought out compared with the initial promise of the novel.

Best of Friends
By Kamila Shamsie

This book holds so much promise, the tested bonds of friendship, 1980s Pakistan around the time that the country was on the brink of gender equality, or was it? Present day London in the penumbra of Brexit. However this was such a difficult read for me. I actually enjoyed the first part of the story while Maryam and Zahra and their families still lived in Karachi, but even that was a struggle to get through. The writing style was very confused. How many times did I go back to reread passages to try and figure out who was talking? The narrative was jittery, as though it was badly translated from another language, or as though the author was trying to be philosophical or rhetorical, and it just didn't land, for me anyway. By the time the story had moved onto London, I found it even harder to understand and this impacted so much on my enjoyment.

What I liked: I was interested in the nature of the "friendship" between Maryam and Zahra. My understanding is that the girls had incorrectly named their status and that what they had was actually described by the Moniker they had sarcastically devised as young children. They were like double agents in their own toxic friendship.

I like the message about girl danger, and I think that the build up to the pivotal event is very well done. It drove me mad that both girls allowed that event to dictate so much of the rest of their lives. I like the way vengefulness is addressed and how the author handles the dichotomy of who and what each girl thinks the other is.

I get the story, I think I understand the message the author was describing, however it felt like it needed more to make the novel viable, I think it needed clearer writing and less frippery.

Thanks to #nergalley and #bloomsburypublishingplc for the eARC