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Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Home Fire by Kamila

Remember the ending to the Oedipus tragedy?  Antigone is at its essence about family loyalty and civil disobedience
Here is the thumbnail sketch.  After the bloody siege of Thebes by Polynieces and his allies, the city stands unconquered. Antigones brother are both dead, killed by each other, according to the curse of Oedipus, their father and one, the invader, is left to rot.  Outraged, Antigone buries him anyway and suffers the consequences.
In this book, one sister is left to deal with the aftermath of her brother's defection to ISIS while the other does almost nothing.  They are the children of a known terrorist father, and what unfolds is a layered tale of growing up Muslim in Britain and how all of this might come aobut, even without the seer who predicted the end of Oedipus' family.  Well written, and long listed for the Booker Prize.

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