BURNT SHADOWS

by Kamila Shamsie
Burnt Shadows is a historical novel that takes place across four dramatically
different generations and locations in the 20th century. In the beginning of the
book, a one-page prologue, a man sits naked in a jail cell and wonders how his life
has taken him to that point. The first of the four major sections, titled “The Yet
Unknowing World” takes place in Nagasaki, Japan, on the day the United States
dropped an atomic bomb on the city. A German man named Konrad Weiss
proposes to Hiroko Tanaka, a young woman he had met as a translator, and she
accepts. However, Weiss is almost immediately killed by the blast, as he does not
make his way to a shelter quickly enough.
The second section of the book takes place in Delhi, India, in 1947. Hiroko visits
the city knowing that Konrad’s sister, Ilse, lives there with her British husband,
Jacob Burton, during the British occupation of India. While Jacob is uncomfortable
with the houseguest, Ilse charitably wants to take Hiroko in. During the several
months that Hiroko lives there, she falls in love with Jacob’s legal assistant, Sajjad
Ashraf, and they eventually marry. When they attempt to return from their
honeymoon, however, Hiroko and Sajjad are prevented from re-entering India, and
decide that they will build their life in the newly created neighboring country of
Pakistan.
The third section of the book starts 35 years into Hiroko and Sajjad’s marriage in
Karachi, Pakistan, in 1982. While Sajjad has been forced to give up his aspirations
of working in law, and instead helps run a soap factory, the couple’s 16-year-old
son, Raza, is a good student who appears to be ready to enter the field. However,
Raza repeatedly fails an important national test due to bizarre bouts of anxiety, and
is forced to wait to re-take the test as his friends continue on in school. At that
time, Raza strikes up a friendship with an Afghani named Abdullah, who he meets
by happenstance at a fish market. Abdullah mistakes Raza and his unique blend of
ethnicities for an Afghani himself. Abdullah begins to talk with more and more
fervor of going to a military training camp to prepare to fight Afghanistan’s war
against the Soviet Union. Raza tells himself that he will help Abdullah get to a
camp, and then leave him there. However, when Raza actually arrives at the camp,
he is horrified to see that it is in a rugged, rural location that would be impossible
to escape. As he becomes increasingly anxious, the leaders of the camp are
suspicious of Raza’s affiliation with the American Harry Burton (the son of Jacob
and Ilse), who had visited Raza’s family. As Raza is returned home from the camp,
Sajjad attempts to find him by searching constantly at the fish market. However, a
man there is also suspicious of Sajjad’s connections to the American, and shoots
and kills Sajjad shortly before Raza returns home.
The fourth and final section of the book takes place in New York City,
immediately following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The elderly
Hiroko lives in the city with Ilse, and is frequently visited by Kim, Harry’s
daughter. Harry and Raza have become coworkers as military contractors, and are
in Afghanistan conducting military operations. Raza is also attempting to reunite
with Abdullah, hoping to reconcile with him, so many years after their bizarre
separation at the camp. Raza discovers that Abdullah is working as a taxi driver in
New York City, and arranges for Hiroko to smuggle Abdullah over the Canadian
border, so that Abdullah may then return to his family in Afghanistan. At that time,
Harry is shot and killed by Afghan forces while playing a cricket game, and Raza
must flee Afghanistan, as Harry’s other colleagues are deeply suspicious of Raza.
In NYC, Kim insists that she, and not Hiroko, be the one who takes Abdullah over
the border. Raza pays for a harrowing multi-leg journey from Afghanistan to
Montreal, where he meets Abdullah at a restaurant as he is dropped off by Kim.
However, Kim suddenly feels deeply suspicious of Abdullah’s Islamic faith, and
calls the police on him. However, when the police enter the restaurant, they
mistakenly arrest Raza, and not Abdullah. When Kim returns to Hiroko’s
apartment in New York City, Hiroko is deeply angry with her for having her son
arrested simply out of misguided race profiling.

Summary

Burnt Shadows  (2009), a novel by Kamila Shamsie, is an epic historical novel

The book opens with a brief prologue depicting a man being stripped and
shackled in a prison cell, wondering how his life has come to this point.

The story then shifts to Nagasaki, Japan in August 1945. Konrad Weiss, a
German man working as a translator in Japan, proposes marriage to Hiroko
Tanaka. She accepts. Shortly after, the air raid sirens send everyone scrambling
for shelter. Konrad moves slowly and is killed in the atomic blast. Hiroko, injured
in the blast, suffers from what would today be called PTSD. At a loss as to what
to do, she decides to travel to visit Konrad’s sister, Ilse, who is living with her
English husband, Jacob, in Delhi, India.
Jacob is not happy to see Hiroko and is against taking her in. Ilse, moved by
Hiroko’s story and obvious distress, insists the young woman be allowed to stay
with them. Hiroko is introduced to Jacob’s assistant, Sajjad, a Muslim man.
Sajjad begins teaching Hiroko Urdu, and they enjoy each other’s company very
much. Eventually, they realize that they have fallen in love. Sajjad informs
Hiroko that his family is very strictly religious and will never allow the marriage;
in fact, his family expects to arrange a traditional marriage for him. He and
Hiroko leave Delhi, eloping to Istanbul to be married. When they attempt to
return, however, the partition of India to form Pakistan has occurred; they are
barred from returning to Delhi and forced to settle in Karachi.

The story jumps to 1982. After thirty-five years of marriage, the couple has a
young son, Raza. Sajjad has abandoned his law career and works in a soap
factory. A very good student with a good chance of attending university, Raza
suffers from anxiety attacks every time he sits for his graduate exams. His friends
pass easily and move on with their lives while Raza is forced to wait for the next
opportunity to take the test.

One day at the fish market, a man named Abdullah begins a conversation with
Raza, assuming because of his mixed ethnicity that he is a fellow Afghani. The
two become friends, and Abdullah begins talking to Raza of the mujahideen and
of going to a remote training camp to learn how to fight the Soviets, who are
invading Afghanistan.

Harry Burton, the son of Ilse and Jacob, visits Sajjad and Hiroko. Raza agrees to
help Abdullah locate and travel to the training camp, thinking he will leave
Abdullah there—it will help pass the time until his next exam. They travel into
the desert and locate the camp, but Raza discovers that it is difficult to leave,
because the men that run the camp are suspicious and paranoid. They discover
that his family is connected to Harry Burton, whom they know as an American.
Back in Karachi, Sajjad searches the fish market every day for signs of Raza, who
has disappeared. His connection to Burton and his constant questions mark him as
suspicious, and he is eventually killed by one of the paranoid mujahideen.
Eventually, they allow Raza to return home.
In 2001, Raza is working with Harry as a military contractor in Afghanistan. Ilse
and Hiroko live in New York City, where Harry’s daughter Kim often visits
them. Raza is using his work in Afghanistan to locate Abdullah, whom he regrets
leaving behind at the camp all those years before. Through his investigation, Raza
discovers that Abdullah is living in New York and working as a cab driver; he has
been prevented from returning home to see his family. Raza engineers a plan to
have Hiroko bring Abdullah into Canada where he will be able to return to
Afghanistan.

Harry is assassinated. Raza finds that he is under suspicion and must flee
Afghanistan. In New York, Kim persuades Hiroko to let her bring Abdullah
across the border. Raza travels to Montreal, meeting Abdullah at a restaurant.
Harboring suspicions about Abdullah’s politics, Kim contacts the police, who
raid the restaurant and mistakenly arrest Raza instead of Abdullah. Back in New
York, Hiroko is furious with Kim for her actions. Kim attempts to contact the
authorities to right her mistake, but the police tell her that she did the right thing;
the government is happy to have the man she identified in custody. Kim’s efforts
make no progress. Hiroko goes to look out the window, noting that the world
moves on despite what’s just happened, taking no notice.

Burnt Shadows - Discussion

1. Early in the novel, Hiroko observes that during World War II everything has
been ‘distilled or distorted into its most functional form’, including a vegetable
patch where once Azaleas grew. What are the small, subtle ways that war changes
our world, and how do those changes crop up in the story of Burnt Shadows?

2. How does Hiroko resist being simply Hibakusha, a victim of the bomb, and in
what ways is she powerless to change this perception of her? Consider also how it
affects her son, Raza. Is it impossible to escape certain legacies?

3. Discuss the different reasons that Konrad, Elizabeth, Sajjad and Harry leave
their home in India, and why Hiroko leaves Japan, and then Pakistan. What does it
mean to have a home, and to be displaced? How is it different when you don’t have
a choice to stay? Ultimately, do the characters ever have a country to call their
own?

4. Hiroko is immovable in her opinion about the atomic bomb. What does it mean
to have a direct and highly personal connection to an earth-changing event like the
bombing of Nakasaki, or 9/11? Is it possible for anyone so directly affected by the
violence of these events to regard them with historic perspective? How are Kim
and Hiroko different from one another in this regard? Consider their conversation
about Nagasaki on pages 294 to 295.

5. The characters in Burnt Shadows sometimes find that their ideological beliefs

6. Hiroko, Sajjad, and Raza each have a love of languages. What does it mean to
learn another language, and why are languages (and their translation back and
forth) important to these characters?

7. Discuss the reasons that Abdullah joins a mujahideen training camp. Why is it
tempting to Raza as well?

8. Who, if anyone, is to blame for the death of Sajjad?

9. Discuss Kim Burton’s actions at the Canadian border. How does this act
illustrate the larger themes of the novel? What would you have done if you were
her?