Subscribe to Read | $0.00
Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!
Quick and Easy Sign Up!
It takes less then 1 minute to sign up, then you can enjoy Unlimited eBooks.
Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!
Quick and Easy Sign Up!
It takes less then 1 minute to sign up, then you can enjoy Unlimited eBooks.
Read Anywhere and on Any Device!
Rate this book!
Write a review?
Broken Verses by Kamila Shamsie is the tale of a twenty-something Pakistani girl, the daughter of a famous activist who has disappeared long ago amid despair over the death of her lover, the Poet. Aasmani’s name recognition lands her a job at a television company and her uncanny resemblance to her mother, Samina, causes others to expect greatness. She struggles with the expectations and her sense of abandonment with a sharp tongue and a cynical attitude. At the television company she meets the s...
Full disclosure- I love Kamila's writing. Some of it might have to do with the fact that we share a similar, ardent love for Karachi which in her case, is all too evident in her writing. Her descriptions of Karachi's life, ambience and of course, the sea, are delectable and heartfelt. I became her fan after reading In the City by the Sea. Broken Verses is not much of a departure in terms of the scope; it has her usual amalgamation of character's angst, political and religious elements interplayi...
No one could have written this book any better. The story line was great,however,the ideas represented in the book were like magic. My heart is weeping for all the lost passion yet rejoicing at the hope amidst all misery. This quote sums up the beauty of this book:“It’s true, that in concrete battles the tyrants may have the upper hand in terms of tactics, weapons, ruthlessness. What our means of protest attempt to do is to move the battles towards abstract space. Force tyranny to defend itself
Initially, I really enjoyed this novel. It's written by a Pakistani woman, and is set in Karachi, Pakistan. Shamsie's language is beautiful, and there are many striking turns of phrase. Her female protagonist is pleasantly introspective, and the novel attempts to place the story within a specific politico-historical context.However, as the novel progresses, those pleasing aspects become annoying. The plot, it turns out, is merely a means of allowing her characters to move from one scene of intro...
A code book for progressive feminist Asians. The tale of complexities of emotions and expectations both entwined with Love. Activist Samina Akram is in love with poet Omi, and that love is beyond bounds. Concurrently, Samina is mother of Aasmani, who is living with her father, a caring stepmother and warm hearted younger stepsister. Kamila raises a myraid of feminist concerns in the book, especially from the perspective of a Muslim woman, for example the one is: does being a mother means you com...
Kamila Shamsie continues to frustrate me.I've kept hoping that her earlier books will provide some of the spark of Home Fire,that hasn't happened.Can she at least give some believable names to her characters ? This one has Aasmani Inqilab (literally,revolution from the sky).And then there is the dialogue,pretentious as ever which makes me want not just to skim paragraphs,but entire pages."Don't you know how much I hero worshipped you when I was a kid ? You were Marie Curie crossed with Emily Bro...
I wanted very much to write something good about this book,but I just wasn't all that excited about the story at all. None of the characters seemed at all real and I know how that sounds as I realize it is fiction,but I like it when the people seem real at least,the pace was very slow,the plot line was weak,the style of the writing was tedious. I just expected much more after I had read a few reviews. The one thing that I did enjoy were some really great lines and phrases peppered throughout the...
I read this book a couple of months ago. Then I checked it out from the library last week again to reread it. I still hardly have words to describe how much this moved me. She has this way of saying things that you've questioned or thought about at some point in your life. Her characters are brave. They are willing to rip open their flesh to bare the soul and scrutinize it, and with that those of the readers'. I loved the ending. I honestly believe there couldn't have been a better ending, not w...
Broken Verses by Kamila ShamsieThis is a book I was reading for a group discussion but did not finish. I read over two thirds of it, however - enough to have a good idea how I felt about it and know that I did not want to spend more time on it. If you are looking for a window into Pakistan as I was you won’t find it here. I can’t say much for the plot (not much of one) or the characters either. Somehow I felt like an outsider looking at this story – never drawn into it, never bonding with the ch...
