Chapter 2 – Cont’d.

Read pp. 41-51.

1. What choice has Isma made and why did she keep it from Aneeka?
2. Why does Aneeka say ‘we have no sister’?
3. In what ways does this passage parallel Antigone? What new meanings are created by
Shamsie’s re-telling of an ancient story in this very modern context?
4. Isma’s response is perhaps unexpected: she decides to renew contact with Eamonn and to
tell him the truth about her father. What do you think motivates this change in her
character?

Read pp. 49 – 52

1. Why did Isma’s family lose touch with her father?

2. Adil Pasha was detained in the notorious Bagram prison in Afghanistan before his death in
2002, on the way to America’s detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Conduct some
brief internet research into these two facilities and the American treatment of inmates in
both places. In this light, what do we understand about this interaction:
‘They haven’t released records of Bagram from that time period. We don’t even
know if anyone bothered to dig a grave.’
‘I’m sure they dug a grave,’ he said.
‘Why? Because they’re so civilised?’
3. At the top of page 51, Isma imagines the world as ‘a place of undreamt-of possibilities. In
this lightness, Aneeka’s anger was short-lived, Parvaiz’s choices reversible.’ Why does she
feel this way? Why is she wrong?

Chapter 3

1. In their first meeting (p. 65), Aneeka challenges Eamonn’s complacency with the phrase
‘GWM’. What does she mean?
2. Why do you think Aneeka swears Eamonn to secrecy about their relationship? Why is he
happy to oblige?

Read pp. 94-97

3. Why is Eamonn infuriated to hear that Parvaiz has joined IS in Raqqa?

4. Should we believe what Aneeka when she tells Eamonn that her feelings for him are ‘real’?

Read pp. 107-109

5. To what extent is Karamat justified in seeing Eamonn’s actions as a ‘betrayal’?