On August 9, 1945, Hiroko Tanaka steps onto her veranda in Nagasaki. Moments later, her world is consumed by fire. Branded—literally and figuratively—by the atomic bomb, Hiroko flees Japan in search of a life untouched by devastation.
But history follows her. In Delhi, she finds unexpected love amid the unraveling of British colonial rule. In post-9/11 New York, she confronts new fears and familiar fractures. And in Afghanistan, the past collides with the present in a shattering reckoning.
Spanning continents and generations, Burnt Shadows is a masterful meditation on love, loss, displacement, and the haunting legacy of war. Kamila Shamsie crafts a sweeping, emotionally resonant epic that traces the personal cost of global conflict with rare beauty and devastating clarity.
