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In the last decade, Pakistani novelist Kamila Shamsie has produced a body of work set largely in Karachi, but which also explores modern global politics. In her novels and essays, Shamsie's work has explored the country's tumultuous origins and its place in the international nexus emerging since 9/11 and the ‘war on terror'. Her first novel, In the City by the Sea, quietly anatomises the consequences of dictatorship through the eyes of a young Pakistani boy. In Kartography, the literal charting of "vibrant, violent" modern Karachi is the backdrop for an exploration of complex personal relationships and ethnic allegiances during the 1971 war with Bangladesh. Shamsie's most recent novel, Burnt Shadows, is an epic narrative relating the experiences of one woman relentlessly buffeted by history. Moving across decades and continents, it takes a look at the human costs of imperial power. Shamsie's work has garnered a number of prizes; in 2009 Burnt Shadows was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction. Join her in conversation with John Campbell.
Image: Mark Pringle
