I think I might have liked this book more if the story didn't keep jumping ahead (and around) so much. It starts out in 1945 Nagasaki then suddenly leaps forward to India post WWII, the partition and Pakistan, the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan and eventually NYC post 9/11 with a few other stops along the way. There are some beautifully written and thought provoking passages though and I did like it. ( )

This book reminded me of Forster’s ‘A Passage to India’ once India was the setting and I wasn’t surprised to find it mentioned finally. Clearly the novel had quite an influence on Shamsie.

I didn’t really like Sajjad because of the role he plays with James, possibly a necessary one of servant/master but hiding his feeling got close to stringing James along, however willing to be deluded that James was. I think I found Elizabeth the most interesting character, a woman working out what to do about her failed marriage while Hiroko is more the feisty, damaged Nagasaki survivor. I also felt some bits were melodramatic such as when she says she wants to say some phrase three times to become a Muslim so that her marriage to Sajjad doesn’t cause problems – doesn’t sound like a solution to me. Still, I found quite amusing her being told that squeezing certain parts of the male anatomy isn’t a good idea quite amusing, giving a break from the usual intuiting with which Shamsie endows her characters.

There were isolated bits that I really liked such as when we find Hiroko ‘had no interest in belonging to anything as contradictorily insubstantial and damaging as a nation’. Such a lot said in that little sentence. On the other hand I found my interest was insufficiently sustained largely, I think, because of the big time jumps Shamsie takes – 19 years at one point – and this introduces new main characters which means the reader has to reorientate and immerse themselves. I didn’t reach the end of the book then although I had fewer than 100 pages to go . . . ( )

Hiroko Tanaka is a young woman in love with a German dreamer who longs for a world where nationality ceases to define identity. Unfortunately, Hiroko will witness the devastating effects of nationalism over and over again throughout her life. From the the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in 1945 to the partition of India in 1947 to the proxy cold war fought in Afghanistan to the aftermath of the September 11th bombing in the US, Hiroko and her family struggle to survive in a world that is always being defined as us vs them.

[Burnt Shadows] is beautifully written with a compelling storyline. The characters are almost always outsiders in some way, struggling to define who they are and where they belong. Misunderstandings and betrayals carry consequences that play out over decades and sometimes generations, but so too does familial loyalty and love. Highly recommended. ( )

I spent the afternoon reading this book when I should had been doing other things; the worst part is that I was driven to read longer and faster as the plot disintegrated. This is too bad that a book that started so promising would finish in such a flop. It feels as if the author did not know how to end it, the more she tried, the more confusing it became, until finally she got tired and gave it up.

I really wish that Shamsie had put the first three quarters of this story in a drawer for a couple of years, and revisited it when the ending finally came to her.

Still, I am giving 3 stars because the beginning was so promising, and because moments of brilliance in the writing. Also, I have a feeling it will lead to a great discussion at my next bookclub meeting. The poor ending does not take way from many of the ethical/moral/spiritual questions about wars, dislocation, immigration, nuclear weapons, etc...

I don’t want to discourage anyone from reading it, either. But it just didn’t live up to my personal expectations.
( )

Burnt Shadows spans 56 years, from 1945 to 2001 moving from Nagasaki, Japan to Delhi, India to Pakistan and New York, all the while addressing the political geography of the time. India's independence from British rule serves as a subtle character in Burnt Shadows as it changes the identity of others. At the heart of the story is the necessity of identity: human culture based on the desire to belong somewhere. Every character in Burnt Shadows struggles with a spiritual homelessness and drifting identity. Consider main protagonist Hiroko Tanaka: she fled Nagasaki, Japan after the bombing. Right before the attack she was engaged to a German, but ends up marrying an Indian she meets at the home of her deceased fiancé's sister in Delhi, India. A misunderstanding leads the couple to Pakistan where they have a son, Raza.
The story opens with the dropping of the bomb on Nagasaki. Hiroko Tanaka loses her fiancé in the blast. How ironic is it she only agreed to marry him that same day? How tragic! In time she makes her way to India and lands on the doorstep of Konrad's half sister, Elizabeth Burton and Elizabeth's husband, James. Reluctantly, they take in Hiroko. Sajjad Ashraf, from the province of Dilli, works as a translator for James and Elizabeth Burton and agreed to tutor Hiroko. A beautiful relationship develops between them.
Burnt Shadows is also about the unspoken observation of marriage; the relationships that fail and those that stand the test of time "until death do us part." Elizabeth and James had small, invisible cracks in their relationship before Hiroko arrived. Hiroko and Sajjad barely knew each other before their hasty marriage and yet it endured.
The last third of the book is difficult to read in that the story moves from one of interpersonal relationships to one of political unrest. The events of September 11th, 2001 play an enormous part in the narrative. It is as if Shamsie has another message, one that she has been waiting for 200 pages to deliver. ( )