There's a lot of layers in this book: the story of a friendship and the story of a country at a turning point in history.
The author writes a vivid story, always fascinating and compelling. An excellent storyteller that keeps the attention alive and tell stories and a story.
I loved it and I think it's an important book that, I hope, lots of people will read.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I enjoyed this and it was compelling enough, although it seemed less "tight" and polished than Shamsie's previous work. (3.5 *s rounded up)

This is an interesting exploration of female friendship, loss, identity, culture and survival - as we follow the development of Zahara & Maryam - two opposite best friends from different backgrounds - as they grow up in Karachi and move to London.

Could be recommended to sixth form students, although CW for visa refusal/ deportation/ misogyny/ peril.

I loved Kamila Shamsie’s last novel, the 2018 Women’s Prize For Fiction winning “Home Fire” placing it at number 6 in my 2017 Books Of The Year. Although based on the Ancient Greek myth of Antigone it felt extremely relevant to our world. There were some big themes tackled and I said that the author “is educating, entertaining and gripping her readers in a manner which explores the potential of the plot in eye-opening, thought-provoking ways.”
No wonder I was looking forward to reading this. It feels a much less ambitious work, a quieter novel but it still managed to impress. The best friends are Zahra and Maryam and we first meet them in Karachi in 1988 as two fourteen year olds negotiating adolescence and kissing posters of George Michael. Their friendship has been strong for years, Zahra is keen to point out the difference between their own close bond with a word she has found in the dictionary “Propinquity- a relationship based on proximity” which is what they feel they have with others.
The first half explores the potential minefields of teenage life for two girls in late 1980s Pakistan excellently. It feels pitch-perfect, Zahra is coming to terms with physical changes and feelings, the awkwardness and newness of which will bring shudders of recognition. Maryam, more privileged, feels that her future is mapped out for the with a family leather goods business and a grandfather who sees in her the abilities to take the business on. She plays cricket with his employees, is popular and has more vision than her own father. The girls sense new beginnings with the ascendancy of Benazir Bhutto until an event takes them into an unexpected direction.
The second part of the novel takes us to London in 2019 where the friends are now living very different lives. How far are they the products of their past experience? The second half is unsurprisingly more political as they attempt to improve the adult world they felt let them down as teenagers, but will their friendship survive?
I loved the first half and enjoyed the second half but for me the novel’s strength is in their teenage Karachi days exploring the girls’ strongly forged friendship with all its intensities and experiences together with the limitations that their environment places on them. This feels magnified by the bombardment of the myriad mixed messages of their Pakistani upbringing which the author skilfully conveys.
Best Of Friends is published by Bloomsbury Circus on September 27th 2022. Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.

This is a rich, deeply evocative book about friendship, loyalty, and power. The prose draws out the facets of lifelong friendship superbly, whilst developing a sense of time and space beautifully, throughout the different eras and locations.

I think the plot drew out strong themes of revenge, victimhood, and betrayal really well, but unfortunately, was just a little too constructed to feel real and believable. It was a brave attempt at showing completely different angles to immigration and national identity, but something about the plot development fell short for me.

Nevertheless, it was a thought-provoking read, with moments of beauty found in the depiction of friendship.

This honest review is given with thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.

Kamila Shamsie's latest novel 'Best of Friends' beautifully explores the friction between the personal and political in a friendship that stretches across three decades and two continents.

We first meet Maryam and Zahra at the age of 14 in Karachi in 1988 in months spanning the death of President Zia and the election of Benazir Bhutto. Maryam comes from a wealthy and well-connected family and expects to inherit her grandfather's business in the future; Zahra is the daughter of a school principal and a well-respected sports journalist who courts controversy by failing to show sufficient deference to President Zia in one of his broadcasts. Zahra and Maryam's close friendship seems unaffected by their difference in social status but is placed under strain when Maryam starts seeing an older boy, Hammad, and a party that takes the place the day after Benazir Bhutto's inauguration has far-reaching repercussions for one of them.

We meet Maryam and Zahra again in London in 2019, still best friends over three decades later. Their professional lives have taken very difficult paths - Zahra is now a high-profile civil liberties campaigner while Maryam is a successful venture capitalist with close links to the right-wing government. Their friendship still appears strong enough to navigate their profound ideological differences until they are reunited with a figure from their past.

This is another extremely well-written novel from Kamila Shamsie with fully-developed characters and wonderful evocation of its two settings. It also engages seriously and thoughtfully with some of the most pressing political questions of our age, particularly the impact of technology on civil liberties and the treatment of immigrants and detainees: one of the most harrowing scenes involves a visit to a detention centre in which Zahra is shocked that she still has the capacity to be shocked at the degrading conditions inmates are forced to endure. Although Shamsie often invites us to share Zahra's outrage at the state of contemporary politics, there is real nuance in the way that she explores the trade-offs, compromises and rationalisations that become part of almost any long-term relationship. The novel asks what it means to be friends with someone who not only has different opinions from us but might also be trying to achieve objectives in their working life which are directly at odds with our own.

This, for me, was the novel's greatest strength. It has a lot in common with Shamsie's previous novel 'Home Fire', but I felt much of the novel feeling it lacked the same momentum: there are numerous moments where we expect a showdown between Zahra and Maryam and it doesn't come. However, I came to feel this was a very realistic depiction of the way that really close friends can put aside their differences most of the time. And when the confrontation finally does come, it feels as inevitable as it is devastating.

Overall, this is another powerful and important novel from a brilliant writer - thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC to review.

*I was provided with a free ebook copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

I am usually a big fan of this author's work but honestly, this book fell a little flat for me. It follows two girls growing up in Pakistan, as they are put in a dangerous situation by a man. The book then cuts to London, where both the girls have become successful in their careers. It goes on to look at how their experience effected them both negatively in different ways and the lengths people will go to to get revenge.

It was an interesting plot, but way too slow for the amount of stuff that actually happened and the chapters are super long. It just didn't hold my attention.

3/5 stars.

I absolutely adored Home Fires, which remains one of my favourite books, and this follow up did not disappoint. Kamila Shamsie is a brilliant and beautiful writer, whose characters and plots are rich, evocative and highly emotive. This is a phenomenal follow up to her incredible debut and deserves every accolade it receives.

Maryam and Zahra are best friends in 1980s Pakistan, despite their different backgrounds. This first part of the book is set against the background of Benazir Bhutto being elected, but a party held to celebrate this will set in motion events that will reverberate throughout their lives, as far as three decades later when they both live in London.

I preferred the first part of the book, when the girls were teenagers, rather than when they grew up. Overall I found this portrayal of female friendship fascinating - highly recommended.

4.5 stars

I'm drawn to books that centre on the theme of friendships. Each friendship is uniquely complicated and this is also the case here. The novel aroused some complicated feelings within me for a reason that I cannot explain, which, strangely enough, I enjoyed. Some reviews express disappointment and that they were let down after having read Shamsie's previous work. However, this is my first time reading Shamsie's literature, so perhaps the lack of expectation meant that I enjoyed it more.

Ouch. A radical warts and all dissection of the friendship ties that bind and how early friendships can form and affect your whole life. Two girls are friends in 1990s Pakistan, from different classes and with different aspirations who are caught up in an incident that has repercussions for their older selves, successful businesswomen in modern London. This books is written with a fierce clarity and affection, and the friendship reads so very true from the beginning to the end. Powerful stuff, read it and weep for the youthful friendships and their adult equivalents.

Maryam and Zahra are teenage girls growing up in Karachi in the late 1980s when Benazir Bhutto is democratically elected after the death of dictator General Zia. Both are inspired by the progressive future that thirty-five year old Bhutto seems to promise, but both are also dealing with the rise of what Maryam calls ‘girlfear’: the growing realisation that they cannot move through the world in the same way as men. And although they are close friends, both from relatively privileged backgrounds, they are at heart very different: wealthy Maryam is heir to her family’s leather business, dreaming of one day taking her grandfather’s place, while middle-class, idealistic Zahra wants to go to Cambridge and be a lawyer. The slow trace of desire and unease as the girls recognise their awakening sexuality is very well done, setting Best of Friends apart from many similar coming-of-age novels; as does the evocation of the particular experience of being a teenager in this place, in this time.

Kamila Shamsie’s previous novel, Home Fire, was remorseless and explosive; given that, I’m not surprised that she wanted to write something rather gentler, with lower stakes. Nevertheless, I liked the development of Maryam and Zahra’s relationship as they move away from their early years and become successful forty-something women in London. I’ve said before that Shamsie’s writing can be heavy-handed, and that isn’t totally absent here; sometimes she spells out exactly what she wants to say about friendship rather than letting the reader realise it. ‘Childhood friendship really was the most mysterious of all relationships… it was built around rules that didn’t extend to any other pairing in life’. However, there are also more thought-provoking observations, such as the description of two elderly women walking together that is allowed to speak for itself.

And while Maryam and Zahra at first appear to be differentiated rather schematically from each other, I thought both grew into much richer characters. I was especially heartened by how seriously Shamsie takes Zahra’s political and moral commitments. Writers often suggest that, when it really comes down to it, what’s ‘real’ is your love for your friends and family and that will always come first. That’s definitely Maryam’s view, but it’s not Zahra’s – or at least, her definition of those she loves stretches much further than those who are personally known to her. As Maryam and Zahra approach their moment of reckoning, it’s clear that what sets them apart isn’t jealousy or petty resentment but a real difference in their core values, which is so refreshing after reading so many novels like Anna Hope’s Expectation, which boil down problems in female friendship to grudges over men or children.

I didn’t think Shamsie quite hit the emotional climax she wanted to in this novel, but it’s an absorbing read that, for me, moves far away from the problems I had with her earlier historical fiction, Burnt Shadows and A God In Every Stone, even if it doesn’t quite reach the heights of Home Fire.

I was excited to get the opportunity to read this novel by this acclaimed author, a former women's fiction prize winner. The story starts in Karachi with political unrest and an unscrupulous government and 2 teenage girls trying to understand the changes that are happening to them and around them.
An incident then occurs that has a significant impact on both girls. The story then jumps 20 years or so and picks up with the success of the pair in London. It tells of their continued friendship despite being such different characters. The ending of the story is disappointing and seems rushed and poorly thought out compared with the initial promise of the novel.

Best of Friends
By Kamila Shamsie

This book holds so much promise, the tested bonds of friendship, 1980s Pakistan around the time that the country was on the brink of gender equality, or was it? Present day London in the penumbra of Brexit. However this was such a difficult read for me. I actually enjoyed the first part of the story while Maryam and Zahra and their families still lived in Karachi, but even that was a struggle to get through. The writing style was very confused. How many times did I go back to reread passages to try and figure out who was talking? The narrative was jittery, as though it was badly translated from another language, or as though the author was trying to be philosophical or rhetorical, and it just didn't land, for me anyway. By the time the story had moved onto London, I found it even harder to understand and this impacted so much on my enjoyment.

What I liked: I was interested in the nature of the "friendship" between Maryam and Zahra. My understanding is that the girls had incorrectly named their status and that what they had was actually described by the Moniker they had sarcastically devised as young children. They were like double agents in their own toxic friendship.

I like the message about girl danger, and I think that the build up to the pivotal event is very well done. It drove me mad that both girls allowed that event to dictate so much of the rest of their lives. I like the way vengefulness is addressed and how the author handles the dichotomy of who and what each girl thinks the other is.

I get the story, I think I understand the message the author was describing, however it felt like it needed more to make the novel viable, I think it needed clearer writing and less frippery.

Thanks to #nergalley and #bloomsburypublishingplc for the eARC

'Best of Friends' starts in Pakistan during the final year of General Zia's dictatorship. Maryam and Zahra are teenagers from wealthy families, with a bright future ahead of them. They are also best friends with each other, despite early signs of strain on the friendship as they mature and their beliefs and interests diverge. Events come to a head at a party celebrating the election of a female president, drawing to a close their carefree existence in Pakistan. The story then picks up thirty years later, with the two women still best friends and living in the UK, both with successful careers. However events from the past are about to catch up with them and test their friendship again.

It is a nicely written book that is well paced and easy to read without being mindless. Zahra and Maryam are interesting, rounded characters and are sympathetic. I could believe in them both as characters and the way their viewpoints contrasted - Maryam pragmatic and cynical, Zahra idealistic and passionate - gave a nice balance to the novel. Although it is primarily a novel about friendships and the lines we will (and won't) cross, there is also an interesting side theme about online privacy and how governments can use/misuse our data. Although political events form the backdrop to the novel, it's not a book about politics or history - historical events are used for context and plot purposes where needed but it's primarily a personal story rather than that of nations.

It lacks the extra-special quality that would give it a five star rating from me, but it's hard to find anything to criticise specifically. I found it interesting throughout and the character building and development is particularly good. Unlike many character-strong novels though, it also has a worthy plot and didn't bore me. I would recommend to readers who enjoy literary fiction, particularly that set in Asia/Asian cultures.

I was excited to read this book, the cover and blurb initially drew me in.

But nothing much happened and I wasn’t overly invested in the main characters,

I did enjoy the themes of social media and its consequences, privacy, the power hierarchy, the indignities of the immigration service, class struggles and identity.

It is a story of friendship, and how childhood trauma can stay with you, never truly leaving the past behind.

How I feel about 'Best of Friends' is difficult to convey as a simple star rating.

On the one hand, I found it hard to read, because its characters are deeply unsympathetic, and their perspective on events is skewed and often exaggerated.

On the other hand, it made me think. A lot. Not only about the characters themselves, but also about the events that unfold in the background of the story, and which paint a picture of a divided nation, where politics is identified with sleaze, and where migrants are as disposable as "a piece of old furniture."

This is essentially a character study, recounting the long term friendship between Zahra and Maryam, from their native Karachi in the 1980s, to modern-day London.

Zahra and Maryam are very different. Zahra is studious, but often acts 'out-of-character'. The amount of cognitive dissonance that she displays throughout is truly astonishing. Maryam is a pragmatist to a fault, and has better self-awareness and character consistency.

When they are both fourteen, they live through an ordeal that they both believe to have deeply changed the trajectory of their lives. Fast-forward 30 years of so, and we get to observe the fallout.

The first 40% or so of the book establishes the background of both characters, and unfolds quite slowly. Then the ordeal takes place, and has some immediate ramifications that disproportionately affect Maryam. Irrespective of how it pans out though, the firmly held belief by both characters that this moment is pivotal to their futures is hugely exaggerated.

Thirty years on, some of this stuff comes back to haunt both characters, and they are forced to confront some hard truths.

This is the first bookb I've read by the author and I was not disappointed. Set in Karachi and London. It is focused on the friendship of Zahra and Maryam as teenagers and later on as adults. The book is very well written and was an enjoyable read.

Shamsie’s follow-up to her Women’s Prize-winning Home Fire is a decades-spanning tale of the intense and complicated friendship between two very different women. Opening in 1980s Karachi when an incident resets the course of their lives, before pivoting to contemporary London. Both a deeply heartfelt and clear-eyed look at the intricate and, at times, conflicting nature of women’s friendship. Recommended. 4.5 stars

Best of Friends to me felt like a book that didn't really go anywhere, there were implications that something shocking was going to happen so I was left waiting for more. Nothing really happened and that to me summed up the whole book.

I enjoyed the first half the book to get a perspective on Pakistan in the 80's. The second half of the book I couldn't really get into and found myself skimming through it to get to the dramatic fall out. Even that didn't live up to the hype.

A good book about 2 young girls growing up in Karachi in 1988 and follows them to London 2019 but from different cultures with different opinions on politics.
They both have successful careers and are wealthy and happy but when someone from their past shows up old memories are stirred up can their friendship survive.
I admit I lost interest towards the end as it did not keep my interest as I found it hard going but the ending was good.
Thanks to NetGalley & Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & ANZ)