Kartography
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'A boisterous tribute to her home town that crackles with the chaos of Pakistani political life' - The Times
'Deftly woven and provocative ... Shamsie's blistering humour and ear for dialogue scorches through their whirl of whisky and witticisms' - Observer
'You will notice very quickly that you're reading a book by someone who can write … Above all, Kartography is a love story. And if you're not sniffling by, or in fact on, page 113, you're reading the wrong book' - Guardian
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BY THE ACCLAIMED WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2018
SHORTLISTED FOR THE JOHN LLEWELLYN RHYS PRIZE
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For a second I was almost jealous of the clouds. Why was he looking to them for an escape when I was right here beside him?
Raised in the upper echelons of Karachi society, Karim and Raheen’s friendship is one of light and laughter. Their families, lives and destinies have been ostensibly intertwined since birth. However, as the spool of fate unwinds, a heavy silence grows between these two once-inseparable friends, culminating in a reckoning with the history of both their families and their country.
A masterpiece of mirth and tragedy, Kartography is an exhilarating meditation on the decaying nature of silence and the pain of detachment, and a reminder that the past is never quite as distant as it seems.
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'Perceptive, funny and poignant' - Times Literary Supplement
'A touching love story, with the city of Karachi beating at its heart' - Daily Mail
'A gorgeous novel of perimeters and boundaries, of the regions – literal and figurative – in which we’re comfortable moving about and those through which we’d rather not travel' - Los Angeles Times
Kamila Shamsie is the author of six novels: In the City by the Sea (shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize); Salt and Saffron; Kartography (also shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize); Broken Verses; Burnt Shadows (shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction) and A God in Every Stone, which was shortlisted for the Baileys Prize, the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. Home Fire was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2017, shortlisted for the Costa Best Novel Award, and won the Women's Prize for Fiction 2018. Three of her novels have received awards from Pakistan's Academy of Letters. Kamila Shamsie is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was named a Granta Best of Young British Novelist in 2013. She grew up in Karachi and now lives in London.
@kamilashamsie