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“A shining tour de force about a long friendship’s respects, disrespects, loyalties and moralities.” —Ali Smith
From the acclaimed author of Home Fire, the moving and surprising story of a lifelong friendship and the forces that bring it to the breaking point
Zahra and Maryam have been best friends since childhood in Karachi, even though—or maybe because—they are unlike in nearly every way. Yet they never speak of the differences in their backgrounds or their values, not even after the fateful night when a moment of adolescent impulse upends their plans for the future.
Three decades later, Zahra and Maryam have grown into powerful women who have each cut a distinctive path through London. But when two troubling figures from their past resurface, they must finally confront their bedrock differences—and find out whether their friendship can survive.
Thought-provoking, compassionate, and full of unexpected turns, Best of Friends offers a riveting take on an age-old question: Does principle or loyalty make for the better friend?
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
September 27, 2022 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780593612101
- File size: 292164 KB
- Duration: 10:08:40
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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July 25, 2022
Shamsie follows her Women’s Prize–winning Home Fire with a nuanced meditation on a lifelong friendship. In 1988 Karachi, best friends Zahra and Maryam, both 14, come of age in the last days of the Zia dictatorship. Zahra is bookish and middle class, while Maryam is worldlier and wealthier. One night they make an impulsive decision to get into a stranger’s car with their classmate Hammad. The girls have differing perspectives on what happened next, and Shamsie hints that there was danger. Then, after Benazir Bhutto is elected Prime Minister, the girls are swept up in the country’s wave of elation. The second half is set in 2019 London, where Zahra is head of the Center for Civil Liberties and Maryam is a venture capitalist. Their circumstances may have changed dramatically, but their friendship remains strong until the surprise reappearance of Hammad, who dredges up the fallout from that night in the car 30 years earlier. Though the revelations aren’t that surprising, Shamsie is perceptive when it comes to picking apart the nuances of the women’s shifting dynamic. It’s not the author’s best, but it shows her to be a consistently thoughtful writer. Agent: Victoria Hobbs, AM Heath Literary. -
Tania Rodrigues narrates this audiobook at a crisp clip, with a lovely accent that adds a sense of music. As the title suggests, this novel traces the friendship between two young women from youth to adulthood. Zahra and Maryam begin their story in Pakistan, and later each moves to London and a more expansive life. Rodrigues's performance is perfectly fine--she is a competent narrator, lively and demonstrative--but the audiobook fails to gain its footing as an engrossing story. Despite exposition filled with details, the two central characters never come to life as separate entities. The effect remains flat, and the story seems stuck in a bland place. This is less a carefree snapshot of a friendship than it is a meticulous still-life portrait. L.B.F. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
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