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👭🏽On Friendship, Politics and when the Two Collide, with Kamila Shamsie👭🏽

The Shakespeare and Company Interview

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Introduction

Carmilla Shamsi's new novel Best of Friends begins in Karachi in 1988, a year that would prove pivotal in the modern history of Pakistan. Zara and Mariam are two teenagers on the cusp of adulthood, finding their feet in a world where lives have vast opportunity but also uncertainty. As readers, we're plunged into both late 20th century Pakistani society and early 21st century Britain. Through the eyes of pitch-perfect characters who crucially refused to become mere ciphers, we see the parallels and contrast of these countries in epochs. Few writers are able to tread the sliding scale between the personal and the political as deftly as Carmilla Shamsi.

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