Kamila Shamsie's book is divided into four time periods: Nagasaki in 1945; New Dehli in 1947, Pakistan in 1982 and New York / Afghanistan in 2001.

It all starts with Konrad Weiss and Hiroko Tanaka. Konrad is German and living as a caretaker on his brother-in-law's estate Azalea Manor in Nagasaki. He has been discarded by his half sister who wants to forget her roots. Hiroko is a local teacher whose father is considered a "traitor" within the community. She works with Konrad part-time translating letters into German. As if cultures were not enough to make these two an unlikely couple, there is also a 28 year age difference.

The first section introduces each of them, the environment they find themselves in, their family situation and their current plans to marry. The chapter ends with Hiroko trying on her mother's wedding kimono as the bomb hits Nagasaki. It was Kamila Shamsie discussion of the catalyst for this scene in an interview that made me want to read Burnt Shadows. The title for this section, "The Yet Unknowing World" is so pertinent to these two characters who have no idea what catastrophe is about to befall them and the after effects to come.

Two years later we are introduced to new scenery -- Delhi. And characters that were only mentioned in passing in the first section, Elizabeth and James Burton. Elizabeth was Konrad's half sister who we were led to believe had no interest in him but quickly learn otherwise. We are also introduced to a new a pivotal character, an Indian man named Sajjad Ali Ashraf, who was fondly remembered by Konrad to Hiroko; now twenty-four, spends his days playing chess with James while he dreams of someday being a lawyer.

Besides emotional scars, the bomb left a physical mark on Hiroko, "some days she could feel the dead on her back, pressing down beneath her shoulder blades with demands she could make no sense of but knew she was failing to meet." She was also suffering from the internal effects of radiation sickness which would continue to remind her of its effects well into her forties. Hiroko shows up on the Burton's doorstep, with a new image to go with the scars on her back, announcing she was Konrad's fiance and after her references are checked they take her under their wing as a companion, cementing a lifelong relationship between two generations of their families.

Because of her love of languages and learning she gets Sajjad to tutor her on the local Urdu language. Language is not their only connection. In the beginning Konrad is a silk ribbon between them but as time passes he too disappears until they are quite in love. Their relationship leads the reader thirty-five years later into the next section -- Karachi Pakistan (where the author was born).

In the final sections the offspring of Hiroko and Elizabeth continue to collide and love another in unexpected ways showing there are more than physical scars we all must overcome -- those caused by the ones we love and those we inflict on ourselves. Hiroko continues to be the seam that ties these sections together even though this section works on painting the lives of the siblings. I never felt like she was abandoned in any way.

It is interesting how the author has crossed the lives of these two families for decades. Burnt Shadows is an emotional book, dealing with the social and political ramifications impressed on two families. Hiroko asks an important question early in the book that the reader is sure to hold in mind throughout the book, "Why did they have to do it? Why a second bomb? Even the first is beyond anything I can... but a second. You do that, and see what you've done, and then you do it again. How is that... ?" As you can imagine from this quote it is very emotional but I don't want to leave you the impression that this novel is all doom and gloom. If I had to describe it in one word it would be 'tender'. The last line of each chapter spurred me on to the next.

I found Kamila Shamsie's voice to be incredibly soulful, detailed and mature. Normally it takes me a good fifty pages to get into a book like this but she had me at page thirteen. I highly recommend Kamila Shamsie's Burnt Shadows.

Burnt Shadows is available from Amazon.com.
Burnt Shadows is available from Amazon.ca.