This novel's ending is, in my opinion, fantastic. I also believe it will serve as a Target attribute for readers, and I can imagine many different interpretations.
Shamsie just provides us with a moment (a important time) and a location, as well as two persons walking in silence.
I know what I believed was in that stillness, and I know what sensation I was left with, but there are numerous different options for our protagonists' relationship at the end of the book.
The only certainty is that the relationship still exists. That is the central theme of this novel.
It's a narrative about power, friendship, and the strength of friendship.
When I say 'power of friendship,' I don't mean a fluffy, hearts and flowers, love-conquers-all kind of power. This is an unavoidable centrifugal force that shapes and defines our primary characters, both harming and sustaining them.
We begin in Karachi in the 1980s, listening to George Michael and reading Jilly Cooper (loved it all), as General Zia's death brings an end to tyranny and the democratic election of Benazir Bhutto.
Bhutto, as a woman rising to great power in a patriarchal environment, inspires our young heroes, and they both go on to important adult roles in the second part of the book (set in London, 2019).
Shamsie just provides us with a moment (a important time) and a location, as well as two persons walking in silence.
I know what I believed was in that stillness, and I know what sensation I was left with, but there are numerous different options for our protagonists' relationship at the end of the book.
The only certainty is that the relationship still exists. That is the central theme of this novel.
It's a narrative about power, friendship, and the strength of friendship.
When I say 'power of friendship,' I don't mean a fluffy, hearts and flowers, love-conquers-all kind of power. This is an unavoidable centrifugal force that shapes and defines our primary characters, both harming and sustaining them.
We begin in Karachi in the 1980s, listening to George Michael and reading Jilly Cooper (loved it all), as General Zia's death brings an end to tyranny and the democratic election of Benazir Bhutto.
Bhutto, as a woman rising to great power in a patriarchal environment, inspires our young heroes, and they both go on to important adult roles in the second part of the book (set in London, 2019).