PositiveThe New York Times Book ReviewPropulsive ... Wilson’s translation of Homeric Greek is always buoyant and expressive. There are occasional slips in register that seem a little out of place ... But Wilson wants this version to be read aloud, and it would certainly be fun to perform.
Kamila Shamsie
PositiveThe GuardianIt is in this move away from the earliest incarnations of the myth that Shamsie’s novel is most successful: she drops the incestuous nature of the children’s parentage, and ditches the second brother, so that Parvaiz is guilty of all kinds of things, but not fratricide. This costs her something in the ambivalence the reader must feel about Parvaiz and correspondingly reduces some of the potency of Aneeka’s sacrifice. But it grounds the novel in the here and now, rather than allowing it to slide into melodrama, an undeniable risk with tragedy-turned-fiction – although it perhaps contributes to the novel’s slightly frustrating conclusion. Shamsie’s prose is, as always, elegant and evocative. Home Fire pulls off a fine balancing act: it is a powerful exploration of the clash between society, family and faith in the modern world, while tipping its hat to the same dilemma in the ancient one.
Mary Beard
PositiveThe GuardianSPQR is a tremendously enjoyable and scholarly read, on a subject that Mary Beard has championed for decades.
