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Best of Friends
- Narrated by: Tania Rodrigues
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
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Best of Friends
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Summary
Bloomsbury presents Best of Friends by Kamila Shamsie, read by Tania Rodrigues.
CHOSEN AS A BOOK OF 2022 BY THE GUARDIAN, OBSERVER, DAILY MAIL AND FINANCIAL TIMES
A dazzling new novel of friendship, identity and the unknowability of other people—from the international bestselling author of Home Fire, winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction
Sometimes it was as though the forty years of friendship between them was just a lesson in the unknowability of other people…
Maryam and Zahra.
In 1988 Karachi, two fourteen-year-old girls are a decade into their friendship, sharing in-jokes, secrets and a love for George Michael. As Pakistan’s dictatorship falls and a woman comes to power, the world suddenly seems full of possibilities. Elated by the change in the air, they make a snap decision at a party. That night, everything goes wrong, and the two girls are powerless to change the outcome.
Zahra and Maryam.
In present-day London, two influential women remain bound together by loyalties, disloyalties, and the memory of that night, which echoes through the present in unexpected ways. Now both have power; and both have very different ideas of how to wield it… Their friendship has always felt unbreakable; can it be undone by one decision?
Critic reviews
"A profound novel about friendship. I loved it to pieces." (Madeline Miller)
"A shining tour de force." (Ali Smith, Guardian Summer Reading)
"A new Kamila Shamsie novel is always worth celebrating, but Best of Friends is something else: an epic story that explores the ties of childhood friendship, the possibility of escape, the way the political world intrudes into the personal, all through the lens of two sharply drawn protagonists." (Observer, Books of the Year 2022)
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What listeners say about Best of Friends
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Sam N
- 18-01-23
Good
I enjoyed it but perhaps not as much as other books of hers. I liked the storyline and characters but I wasn't gripped so giving it 4 not 5.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mr. R. S. Akhtar
- 19-05-23
A wonderful book. Loved every moment.
I am very impressed. It is so nice to see a book dealing with British Pakistanis that doesn't revert to clichés and anti Pakistani values.
At its heart, this book is about redemption and acceptance of the past. In its execution, to bring out this, we are taken into the world of middle class London and then, the rich affluent middle class of Karachi and the characters are vividly painted as having demons of their own.
The central characters of the two sisters are easy to sympathise with and the male characters, although chauvinists, have a strong viewpoint that deserves being listened to.
Overall, after the first half hour,this book became addictive and I was listening to it continuously for 4 to 5 hours and I finished it within 2 days.
I loved it.
R Sohail Akhtar
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 12-12-22
not great much too girly. Home fire was superior
I couldn't get Interested in the long karachi story. the London bits were better. overall home fire was a far better book. disappointed as liked her previous works
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- imuzaffar
- 04-02-23
A story about friendship and ethics
The first half of Shamsie’s novel read like an
Autobiography of every teenager in Pakistan in the late 1980s and 1990s. Very evocative of a time in Pakistan where classism and social
Mores dictated friendships and relationships. The second half touched on a lot of modern themes, such as immigration issues, facial recognition and privacy concerns, power and profit over morality. While the author covered a wide spectrum of issues, particularly covering recent policy developments on immigrants, the second half of the novel read more like a leftist manifesto, trying to evoke outrage in recent policies towards immigrants as Kamila herself has been . I felt the ending was very abrupt and didn’t answer the question of why are lives become divergent or how childhood relationships and interactions change
or dont change us. Maybe friendship, like
any relationship, is just a tool to realise who we really are.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Dr. Ka Mckinnell
- 26-07-23
Great read
I enjoyed this - so well observed and vivid depiction of two contrasting countries so well done
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Miss D Srao
- 14-04-23
I wanted to know more
I wanted to know what happened after the crossroads in the park? this story could've have progressed further.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Paul
- 24-02-24
Most Boring Book Ever
Quite honestly one of the most boring pointless books I have ever wasted time listening to. Good narrator but awful content. Don’t waste your life.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Kindle Customer
- 18-01-24
Disappointing
Such a let down by Kamila Shamsie - poor story and weak characters.
Expected better.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Mariangela
- 23-07-23
Felt quite disappointed after loving previous book
I was really excited to read more of Kamila Shamisie's work as I absolutely loved Home Fire and recommended it to loads of people. This book starts overall well and the initial premise seems quite interesting and promising, but there's 2 parts to the book and I just hated the second one..... it felt so implausible to the point where I just became really uninvested in the story. I kept on trying to enjoy it but unfortunately I think I just really didn't.....
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Emma L
- 30-10-22
Too breathy
The subject interested me but unfortunately the reader was too breathy (end of every sentence) and I couldn’t enjoy
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1 person found this helpful