home fire book review new york times

Review: Home Fire – Kamila Shamsie

One of the hardest things about moving to Sydney was leaving my job working for the Women’s Prize for Fiction . A job I couldn’t have dreamed up even if I’d tried, I spent two glorious years championing women writers, and was also lucky enough to work alongside  Kate Mosse , co-founder of the prize and a writer I had admired from afar for many years prior to meeting her.

I still follow the prize closely from Sydney, and do my best to read as much of the short and long-list as I can, but alas, as every ardent reader will know, it’s completely impossible to read everything recommended to you, and subsequently the 2018 winner, Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie, had slipped through my radar until last week. I was at my local bookshop, Gertrude & Alice, and as I was leaving Jane, the owner, gave me a copy, insisting I should read it. It was the type of Sydney day made for hunkering down with a book – torrential rain, looming grey skies, low clouds and a chill in the air; so I swiftly took myself home and readied myself for an afternoon of reading curled up on the coach.

While I had read A God in Every Stone when it was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2015, I had little recollection of what had happened in the book, and thus little idea of what to expect from Shamsie’s seventh novel, but as soon as I started it I was utterly enthralled, and it felt like I barely drew a breath from start to finish.

Home Fire revolves around orphaned siblings Isma and Aneeka, whose brother Parvaiz gets exploited and groomed into radicalism in the wake of their mother’s death. Shamsie cleverly depicts the ongoing manipulation of Parvaiz and allows the reader to see into the mind and heart of such a recruit; how badly he knew he erred, and how completely lost he felt, both unknowing and unable to fit back into life as he knew it before he attempts to follow in his late father’s footsteps by joining ISIS in Syria. The story speaks to nationalism, patriotism, and citizenship as a privilege, not as a birthright, and is a beautifully written tale that has been compared to both the Greek tragedy Antigone, and Shakespeare’s woeful tale of star-crossed lovers.

Weaving themes of love, familial ties, loyalty, betrayal, deceit, devotion, manipulation, radicalism, sacrifice, and so much more, Shamsie merges the personal with the political to deliver a heartbreaking tale, rich in beautiful prose and a haunting cast of characters that will leave you reeling at its gut-wrenching climax.

About Home Fire

The suspenseful and heartbreaking story of an immigrant family driven to pit love against loyalty, with devastating consequences

Isma is free. After years of watching out for her younger siblings in the wake of their mother’s death, she’s accepted an invitation from a mentor in America that allows her to resume a dream long deferred. But she can’t stop worrying about Aneeka, her beautiful, headstrong sister back in London, or their brother, Parvaiz, who’s disappeared in pursuit of his own dream, to prove himself to the dark legacy of the jihadist father he never knew. When he resurfaces half a globe away, Isma’s worst fears are confirmed.

Then Eamonn enters the sisters’ lives. Son of a powerful political figure, he has his own birthright to live up to—or defy. Is he to be a chance at love? The means of Parvaiz’s salvation? Suddenly, two families’ fates are inextricably, devastatingly entwined, in this searing novel that asks: What sacrifices will we make in the name of love?

About Kamila Shamsie

Kamila Shamsie was born in 1973 in Karachi, where she grew up. She has a BA in Creative Writing from Hamilton College in Clinton, NY and an MFA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. While at the University of Massachusetts she wrote  In The City By The Sea   , published by Granta Books UK in 1998. This first novel was shortlisted for the John Llewelyn Rhys Award in the UK, and Shamsie received the Prime Minister’s Award for Literature in Pakistan in 1999. Her 2000 novel  Salt and Saffron   led to Shamsie’s selection as one of Orange’s “21 Writers of the 21st Century.” With her third novel,  Kartography   , Shamsie was again shortlisted for the John Llewelyn Rhys award in the UK. Both  Kartography  and her next novel,  Broken Verses   , won the Patras Bokhari Award from the Academy of Letters in Pakistan. Burnt Shadows, Shamsie’s fifth novel, has been longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction. Her books have been translated into a number of languages.

Shamsie is the daughter of literary critic and writer  Muneeza Shamsie , the niece of celebrated Indian novelist  Attia Hosain , and the granddaughter of the memoirist Begum Jahanara Habibullah. A reviewer and columnist, primarily for the Guardian, Shamsie has been a judge for several literary awards including The Orange Award for New Writing and The Guardian First Book Award. She also sits on the advisory board of the Index on Censorship.

For years Shamsie spent equal amounts of time in London and Karachi, while also occasionally teaching creative writing at Hamilton College in New York State. She now lives primarily in London.

Further Reading

This is a great write up from the Guardian on Kamila Shamsie winning the Women’s Prize for Fiction for a story of our times .

I love the New York Times’ review of Home Fire , and this write up by Vogue is also well worth a read.

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4 comments on “Review: Home Fire – Kamila Shamsie”

I love this book. It was the best thing I read in 2018 and I recommend it wherever possible.

It’s absolutely incredible isn’t it Emma? I just loved it! xo

Fantastic book. I just love it.

It’s absolutely brilliant, isn’t it?

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Home Fire: A Novel Kindle Edition

• Print length 286 pages
• Language English
• Sticky notes On Kindle Scribe
• Publisher Riverhead Books
• Publication date August 15, 2017
• File size 1513 KB
• Page Flip Enabled
• Word Wise Enabled
• Enhanced typesetting Enabled
• See all details

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com review, about the author, excerpt. © reprinted by permission. all rights reserved..

Isma was going to miss her flight. The ticket wouldn’t be refunded because the airline took no responsibility for passengers who arrived at the airport three hours ahead of the departure time and were escorted to an interrogation room. She had expected the interrogation, but not the hours of waiting that would precede it, nor that it would feel so humiliating to have the contents of her suitcase inspected. She’d made sure not to pack anything that would invite comment or questions—no Quran, no family pictures, no books on her area of academic interest—but, even so, the officer took hold of every item of Isma’s clothing and ran it between her thumb and fingers, not so much searching for hidden pockets as judging the quality of the material. Finally she reached for the designer-label down jacket Isma had folded over a chair back when she entered, and held it up, one hand pinching each shoulder.

“This isn’t yours,” she said, and Isma was sure she didn’t mean because it’s at least a size too large but rather it’s too nice for someone like you .

“I used to work at a dry-cleaning shop. The woman who brought this in said she didn’t want it when we couldn’t get rid of the stain.” She pointed to the grease mark on the pocket.

“Does the manager know you took it?”

“I was the manager.”

“You were the manager of a dry-cleaning shop and now you’re on your way to a PhD program in sociology?”

“And how did that happen?”

“My siblings and I were orphaned just after I finished uni. They were twelve years old—twins. I took the first job I could find. Now they’ve grown up; I can go back to my life.”

“You’re going back to your life . . . in Amherst, Massachusetts.”

“I meant the academic life. My former tutor from LSE teaches in Amherst now, at the university there. Her name is Hira Shah. You can call her. I’ll be staying with her when I arrive, until I find a place of my own.”

“In Amherst.”

“No. I don’t know. Sorry, do you mean her place or the place of my own? She lives in Northampton—that’s close to Amherst. I’ll look all around the area for whatever suits me best. So it might be Amherst, but it might not. There are some real estate listings on my phone. Which you have.” She stopped herself. The official was doing that thing that she’d encountered before in security personnel—staying quiet when you answered their question in a straightforward manner, which made you think you had to say more. And the more you said, the more guilty you sounded.

The woman dropped the jacket into the jumble of clothes and shoes and told Isma to wait.

That had been a while ago. The plane would be boarding now. Isma looked over at the suitcase. She’d repacked when the woman left the room and spent the time since worrying if doing that without permission constituted an offense. Should she empty the clothes out into a haphazard pile, or would that make things even worse? She stood up, unzipped the suitcase, and flipped it open so its contents were visible.

A man entered the office, carrying Isma’s passport, laptop, and phone. She allowed herself to hope, but he sat down, gestured for her to do the same, and placed a voice recorder between them.

“Do you consider yourself British?” the man said.

“I am British.”

“But do you consider yourself British?”

“I’ve lived here all my life.” She meant there was no other country of which she could feel herself a part, but the words came out sounding evasive.

The interrogation continued for nearly two hours. He wanted to know her thoughts on Shias, homosexuals, the Queen, democracy, The Great British Bake Off , the invasion of Iraq, Israel, suicide bombers, dating websites. After that early slip regarding her Britishness, she settled into the manner that she’d practiced with Aneeka playing the role of the interrogating officer, Isma responding to her sister as though she were a customer of dubious political opinions whose business Isma didn’t want to lose by voicing strenuously opposing views, but to whom she didn’t see the need to lie either. (“When people talk about the enmity between Shias and Sunni, it usually centers around some political imbalance of power, such as in Iraq or Syria—as a Brit, I don’t distinguish between one Muslim and another.” “Occupying other people’s territory generally causes more problems than it solves”—this served for both Iraq and Israel. “Killing civilians is sinful—­that’s equally true if the manner of killing is a suicide bombing or aerial bombardments or drone strikes.”) There were long intervals of silence between each answer and the next question as the man clicked keys on her laptop, examining her browser history. He knew that she was interested in the marital status of an actor from a popular TV series; that wearing a hijab didn’t stop her from buying expensive products to tame her frizzy hair; that she had searched for “how to make small talk with Americans.”

You know, you don’t have to be so compliant about everything, Aneeka had said during the role-playing. Isma’s sister, not quite nineteen, with her law student brain, who knew everything about her rights and nothing about the fragility of her place in the world. For instance, if they ask you about the Queen, just say, “As an Asian I have to admire her color palette.”   It’s important to show at least a tiny bit of contempt for the whole ­process. Instead, Isma had responded, I greatly admire Her Majesty’s commitment to her role. But there had been comfort in hearing her sister’s alternative answers in her head, her Ha! of triumph when the official asked a question that she’d anticipated and Isma had dismissed, such as the Great British Bake Off one. Well, if they didn’t let her board this plane—or any one after this—she would go home to Aneeka, which is what half Isma’s heart knew it should do in any case. How much of Aneeka’s heart wanted that was a hard question to answer—she’d been so adamant that Isma not change her plans for America, and whether this was selflessness or a wish to be left alone was something even Aneeka herself didn’t seem to know. A tiny flicker in Isma’s brain signaled a thought about Parvaiz that was trying to surface, before it was submerged by the strength of her refusal ever to think about him again.

Eventually, the door opened and the woman official walked in. Perhaps she would be the one to ask the family questions—the ones most difficult to answer, the most fraught when she’d prepared with her sister.

“Sorry about that,” the woman said, unconvincingly. “Just had to wait for America to wake up and confirm some details about your student visa. All checked out. Here.” She handed a stiff rectangle of paper to Isma with an air of magnanimity. It was the boarding pass for the plane she’d already missed.

Isma stood up, unsteady because of the pins and needles in her feet, which she’d been afraid to shake off in case she accidentally kicked the man across the desk from her. As she wheeled out her luggage she thanked the woman whose thumbprints were on her underwear, not allowing even a shade of sarcasm to enter her voice. ***

The cold bit down on every exposed piece of skin before cutting through the layers of clothing. Isma opened her mouth and tilted her head back, breathing in the lip-numbing, teeth-aching air. Crusted snow lay all about, glinting in the lights of the terminal. Leaving her suitcase with Dr. Hira Shah, who had driven two hours across Massachusetts to meet her at Logan Airport, she walked over to a mound of snow at the edge of the parking lot, took off her gloves, and pressed her fingertips down on it. At first it resisted, but then it gave way, and her fingers burrowed into the softer layers beneath. She licked snow out of her palm, relieving the dryness of her mouth. The woman in customer services at Heathrow—a Muslim—had found her a place on the next flight out, without charge; she had spent the whole journey worrying about the interrogation awaiting her in Boston, certain they would detain her or put her on a plane back to London. But the immigration official had asked only where she was going to study, said something she didn’t follow but tried to look interested in regarding the university basketball team, and waved her through. And then, as she walked out of the arrivals area, there was Dr. Shah, mentor and savior, unchanged since Isma’s undergraduate days except for a few silver strands threaded through her cropped dark hair. Seeing her raise a hand in welcome, Isma understood how it might have felt, in another age, to step out on deck and see the upstretched arm of the Statue of Liberty and know you had made it, you were going to be all right.

While there was still some feeling in her gloveless hands she typed a message into her phone: Arrived safely. Through security—no problems. Dr. Shah here. How things with you?

Her sister wrote back: Fine, now I know they’ve let you through, 

Really fine?

Stop worrying about me. Go live your life—I really want you to.

The parking lot with large, confident vehicles; the broad avenues beyond; the lights gleaming everywhere, their brightness multiplied by reflecting surfaces of glass and snow. Here, there was swagger and certainty and—on this New Year’s Day of 2015—a promise of new beginnings.

Product details

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01N7M7L55
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Riverhead Books (August 15, 2017)
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 15, 2017
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• File size ‏ : ‎ 1513 KB
• Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
• Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 286 pages
• #332 in Political Fiction (Kindle Store)
• #822 in Political Fiction (Books)
• #1,114 in Family Life Fiction (Kindle Store)

About the author

Kamila shamsie.

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Customers find the story compelling, engrossing, and terrific. They also find the writing quality extremely well-written and easy to read. Readers describe the pacing as quick and the scenes as sharp and finely drawn. Opinions are mixed on the ending, with some finding it beautiful and heartbreaking, while others say it's strange.

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Customers find the story compelling, engrossing, and terrific. They say it's a well-imagined updating of the story of Antigone as told first by Sophocles. Readers also like the characters and the development of the plot. They mention the result is cohesive and engaging.

"...that is just part of the issue, the subject matter and the plot were not only fascinating but hit very close to home...." Read more

"...drawn, the dialogue precise and clever, and the plot vibrates with increasing intensity ...." Read more

"...I needn’t have worried. This is a nuanced book that is good – so good , in fact, that Ms. Shamsie had me in thrall right ‘til the extraordinarily..." Read more

"There is no doubt this is a good read , with a story that keeps you intrigued but there just something that doesn’t feel quite right...." Read more

Customers find the book thought-provoking, interesting, and engaging. They say it successfully highlights the complexities of human nature. Readers also describe the book as a true thriller and excellent.

"This book was a true “thriller ”. I couldn’t put it down. It was superbly written...." Read more

"...but moreover, its gift is its resonance, making the intimate a deeply political act , and the political honing unerringly home." Read more

"...I needn’t have worried. This is a nuanced book that is good – so good, in fact, that Ms. Shamsie had me in thrall right ‘til the extraordinarily..." Read more

"...Shamsie did a fine job of evoking the motivations of Ismene and Antigone in a realistic manner...." Read more

Customers find the writing quality of the book excellent. They say it's well-told, compelling, and easy to read. Readers also appreciate the precise dialogue and clever plot.

"This book was a true “thriller”. I couldn’t put it down. It was superbly written ...." Read more

"...The scenes are sharply and finely drawn, the dialogue precise and clever, and the plot vibrates with increasing intensity...." Read more

"...Despite its relatively low page count, this is not a light read ...." Read more

"...Kamila Shamsie's writing is beautiful , and the characters are well-developed and relatable...." Read more

Customers find the pacing of the book quick and seamless. They say it's a great, timely read.

"...The novel is well-paced and explosive with an organic ending that unsettled me and broke my heart...." Read more

"...Thought provoking and quick paced , Home Fire embroidered my reading world with details of place, emotion, and thought that made me feel a part of..." Read more

"...I liked that the story was told from different characters and the flow was seamless . It was a story of unconditional love, family and pain...." Read more

"...It was well-written in a good pace without getting bogged down." Read more

Customers find the book stunning, breathtaking, and crisp. They say the scenes are sharply and finely drawn, the dialogue precise, and clever. Readers also describe the book as intelligent, passionate, and dignified.

"...The scenes are sharply and finely drawn , the dialogue precise and clever, and the plot vibrates with increasing intensity...." Read more

"...It's a work of beauty and depth which requires the reader's full attention in order to absorb the ramifications of the characters' actions and..." Read more

"Brilliant, beautiful , and full of irony, Shamsie's story eclipses Sophocles' original...." Read more

"...The book is very well written, easy to read and a real page turner ...." Read more

Customers have mixed opinions about the ending of the book. Some mention it's beautiful, tragic, and powerful. Others say they wish it was more resolved and strange.

"...in all, I was awed by Shamsie’s ability to weave a complex and heartbreaking story while shifting the narrative perspective among several characters..." Read more

"...This truly heart wrenching tale will keep you wanting more even when the end comes. 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥..." Read more

"...The ending is extremely dramatic. Not fun. Not hopeful or heartwarming. Tragic . But then what do we expect in a book that deals with ISIS?" Read more

"...who is the most complex and compelling—and, in my opinion, the most tragic ...." Read more

Customers have mixed opinions about the character development in the book. Some mention the characters are richly developed and complex, while others say the author jumped from character to character and never developed any of them.

"...Most of the main characters have strong moral outlooks which have evolved based upon their experiences and beliefs...." Read more

"...Kamila Shamsie's writing is beautiful, and the characters are well-developed and relatable...." Read more

"...The ending is extremely dramatic. Not fun. Not hopeful or heartwarming . Tragic. But then what do we expect in a book that deals with ISIS?" Read more

"...Shamsie's characters are richly developed and complex - especially the sisters. The women are strong and intelligent, passionate and dignified...." Read more

Customers have mixed opinions about the value for money of the book. Some mention it's a tough read but well worth it, while others say it'll stay with the reader long after.

"...This is a vastly rewarding work which will stay with the reader long after the last page has been turned...." Read more

"...received, but the most disappointing aspect is that it had the potential to be excellent , and it certainly could've been good enough to be..." Read more

"...is not a perfect novel—a coincidence kicks off the plot—but it pays off beautifully . You will not forget the last line." Read more

"...She tried to sympathize with characters with no character. A waste of time !!!" Read more

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Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie

Reviewed by sophie karolczak [email protected].

Antigone  for the Modern Era: a Review of  Home Fire

Kamila Shamsie’s novel Home Fire adapts Sophocles’  Antigone  to the modern era, brilliantly merging themes from the ancient text with modern issues through the lens of Muslim identity in the United Kingdom. Three themes important in Antigone include the importance of those in power listening to others, what should be viewed as a crime, and how the dead should be treated. Shamsie also brings in a new theme, namely the meaning of citizenship and its fragility for certain groups of people.  Antigone  takes place in a time of war and in Home Fire that war is the war on I.S.I.S. As we know, Muslim families with no connection whatsoever to I.S.I.S. have been treated horribly in countries like the U.K. and U.S., and this novel also addresses that.   

Shamsie engages with  Antigone  at both a surface level and through its deeper themes. However, even if the reader has no knowledge of the book’s classical roots, Home Fire is an excellent story. One obvious correlation is the naming of the characters. For example, Ismene becomes Isma, Haimon is changed to Eamonn, and so on. Shamsie spends much more time than Sophocles on character development, which is partially a reflection of the medium.  Antigone  was a play, and focused on a much smaller window of time. Shamsie uses her novel format to tell a story leading up to the events mirroring  Antigone  and gives readers a view into the motivations inspiring each character. In  Antigone , conversation between characters is an important vehicle for the story to progress. Many of the events are not happening in real time, rather they are being described to someone. Shamsie stays loyal to this, with the final events of the story unraveling on international television. This is reminiscent of the Messenger describing events to Creon. 

In  Home Fire , we are first introduced to Isma, who represents Ismene. She has just moved from London to the U.S. for grad school. Like her classical counterpart, she is very thoughtful and cautious, always concerned about her and her family’s reputation. Aneeka, the younger sister, represents Antigone. She is beautiful, opinionated, stubborn, and deeply loyal to her twin brother, Parvaiz. Parvaiz represents Polyneices, one of the two brothers in  Antigone  and is presented as a more complicated character than in Antigone.   We don’t meet him until the end of the book, but he is introduced as the twin of Aneeka who had decided to follow in the footsteps of his father by joining the media arm of I.S.I.S.  He was manipulated into his role and decides he wants to leave, but by then it’s too late. Because of this, in a way he represents both brothers in  Antigone . Isma, Aneeka, and Parvaiz’s father represents Oedipus. Their father died before this story began, but it is explained that he had been a jihadist and died in a plane crash on the way to Guantanamo Bay. 

The other family involved in Home Fire is the Lone family. Eamonn Lone represents Haimon, the son of Creon, and is originally introduced as a friend and possible romantic interest of Isma. However, he sees a picture of Aneeka and is immediately infatuated. They start a relationship, as in  Antigone , and his fate becomes tied to Aneeka and Parvaiz. Eamonn’s father, Karamat Lone, represents Creon. He is an M.P. who has risen to power by refuting his Muslim identity. He is as stubborn as his classical counterpart and this ends up costing him everything. Karamat’s wife, Terry Lone, represents Teiresias. Her conversations with her husband toward the end of the novel reflect many of the same sentiments as those between Creon and Teiresius at the end of Antigone. She calls Creon out on his stubbornness and convinces him to change his mind in the end, but it is too late.

Shamsie makes a few key alterations that differ from  Antigone . One is having the character equivalent of Teiresius be Terry Lone, Karamat’s wife. This alteration makes more sense in the context of the modern story, since prophets aren’t generally wandering around giving advice nowadays. The change also gives a female character more power than one might see in the ancient world. Another alteration is the removal of one of the two brothers. There is no obvious equivalent of Eteocles in Home Fire. Shamsie seems to have made this choice to have more time to tell Parvaiz’s story, which adds depth to his character definitely not seen in  Antigone . Rather than having a ‘good’ brother and a ‘bad brother’, we have just one brother who is multidimensional and capable of both good and bad. One last alteration is that in  Antigone , Antigone is the older sister, whereas in Home Fire Aneeka is significantly younger. I think this change reflects sentiments today about youth being extreme and at times irrational. Isma plays the role of the more mature, though at times jealous, older sister. 

The part of  Home Fire  that most closely resembles  Antigone  takes place during the last part of the book. While trying to get home, Parvaiz is killed, and his body is supposed to be buried in Pakistan by order of Karamat Lone, but Aneeka is determined to have it brought back to London. Eamonn and Karamat have an argument that is a modernized version of the argument between Haimon and Creon. Eamonn is pleading for Karamat to see a different perspective, and Karamat is accusing Eamonn trying to help Aneeka only because she seduced him. 

Home Fire  combines two parts of  Antigone  into one: the burial of the brother as well as the imprisonment and eventual death of Antigone. Aneeka’s British passport had been confiscated so she is stuck outside of Britain. This is a more modern form of imprisoning her away from home, and Karamat has no intention of allowing her to return. Isma shows up to Karamat’s house, demanding to travel to be with her sister in Pakistan, reflecting the change of heart by Ismene in  Antigone . While Isma and Karamat are talking, Karamat learns his son has traveled to Pakistan as well. Karamat and Terry have a conversation that finally convinces him to try to fix his mistakes, just like the conversation between Creon and Teiresius. The choice to make Teiresius’ analogous character the wife of Karamat reflects the changing views of a woman’s roles in marriage. In classical times, wives had little chance of changing a husband’s mind using logic. 

At the end of the book, Karamat, Terry, and their daughter Emily are told that there is an imminent attack on their family, and they hide.  When they’re released they learn what has occured on television. Eamonn shows up to support Aneeka, but unbeknownst to him, terrorists had strapped a belt of explosives on him. Aneeka runs towards him and the book ends in them embracing. It is apparent both will die, but not explicitly stated, unlike in  Antigone  where the two are found dead together. The way the family learns what has occured is similar to how everything is revealed at the end of Antigone. Creon finally has a change of heart and intends to help, but it is too late and his son is dead. 

While overall I would consider  Home Fire  to be a successful adaptation of  Antigone , some aspects of the ancient text may be less relevant to modern readers, forcing Shamsie to shift the message slightly. For example, proper burial is not a theme many are grappling with in literature today. The idea of a corpse being dropped off in a park enshrouded in ice is a bit hard to imagine, but the fact that this scene was described as international news helps to defend its absurdity. Another common trait of ancient literature is misogyny. In  Antigone,  Antigone is the title character, yet she barely speaks in the play and the other female characters in the play are very one dimensional. Home Fire also struggles with this. Shamsie was limited here as she tried to closely adapt a classical text, but the characters of Isma and Aneeka, while certainly more complex than their classical counterparts, were also quite one-dimensional, with only one emotion dictating their actions at a time. Meanwhile, much more complexity was introduced into the characters of Eamonn and Karamat. This book is definitely intended for a more mature audience, with vivid depictions of death, violence, and sex. 

Other reviews of  Home Fire  have been overwhelmingly positive. Dwight Garner of the New York Times describes the adaptation as “[playing] freely with Sophocles’ drama but [hewing] to its themes”. The Guardian ’s Natalie Haynes praised the novel’s ability to connect the ancient with the modern, writing “it is a powerful exploration of the class between society, family, and faith in the modern world, while tipping its hat to the same dilemma in the ancient one”. One of the few complaints, voiced by NPR’s Michael Schaub, was that Parvaiz’s radicalization happened very quickly, and wasn’t explained as fully as Schaub would have hoped. I do agree with this, however we did get to learn significantly more about Parvaiz than we did about Polyneices in Antigone. 

 If readers of  Home Fire  are interested in other adaptations of Antigone , they are in luck! Several creators have reworked  Antigone  for the modern era, including Jean Anouilh and Sophie Deraspe. Jean Anouilh, a french playwright, adapted  Antigone  to reflect the Nazi occupation and French resistance during World War II. She was the original one who switched the birth order of Ismene and Antigone. Sophie Deraspe, a Canadian filmmaker, created a film adaptation of Antigone that takes place in Montreal. This film brings in themes of police violence and also connects to citizenship like  Home Fire . 

Works Cited

Garner, Dwight. “In ‘Home Fire,’ Lives Touched by Immigration, Jihad and Family Love.”  The New York Times , The New York Times, 8 Aug. 2017,  www.nytimes.com/2017/08/08/books/review-home-fire-kamila-shamsie.html .

Haynes, Natalie. “Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie Review – a Contemporary Reworking of Sophocles.”  The Guardian , Guardian News and Media, 10 Aug. 2017,  www.theguardian.com/books/2017/aug/10/home-fire-kamila-shamsie-review .

Heeney, Alex. “Sophie Deraspe on Her Modern Adaptation of Antigone.”  Seventh Row , 11 Dec. 2019,  www.seventh-row.com/2019/12/11/antigone-sophie-deraspe/

Schaub, Michael. “’Home Fire’ Puts A Topical Spin On Ancient Greek Tragedy.”  NPR , NPR, 15 Aug. 2017,  www.npr.org/2017/08/15/542468885/home-fire-puts-a-topical-spin-on-ancient-greek-tragedy .

Shamsie, Kamila.  Home Fire . Thorndike Press, 2018.          

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Home Fire: A Novel by Kamila Shamsie

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“Ingenious… Builds to one of the most memorable final scenes I’ve read in a novel this century.” — The New York Times WINNER OF THE 2018 WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION LONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE The suspenseful and heartbreaking story of an immigrant family driven to pit love against loyalty, with devastating consequences Isma is free. After years of watching out for her younger siblings in the wake of their mother’s death, she’s accepted an invitation from a mentor in America that allows her to resume a dream long deferred. But she can’t stop worrying about Aneeka, her beautiful, headstrong sister back in London, or their brother, Parvaiz, who’s disappeared in pursuit of his own dream, to prove himself to the dark legacy of the jihadist father he never knew. When he resurfaces half a globe away, Isma’s worst fears are confirmed. Then Eamonn enters the sisters’ lives. Son of a powerful political figure, he has his own birthright to live up to—or defy. Is he to be a chance at love? The means of Parvaiz’s salvation? Suddenly, two families’ fates are inextricably, devastatingly entwined, in this searing novel that asks: What sacrifices will we make in the name of love?

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Contractor error suspected in tesla science center fire.

By Chris Francescani

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Nearly a year after last fall’s devastating fire at the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe in Shoreham, the cause of the blaze remains undetermined — though the center’s executive director said this week that it was most likely sparked by contractors using blowtorches.

“They were cutting metal with torches that create sparks, and where they were working that day was right above the roof where the fire started,” TSCW executive director Marc Alessi said in an interview. “The only thing [arson investigators] couldn’t rule out was contractor error.” 

Mr. Alessi said the contractor’s insurance company recently completed a six-month investigation into the fire and denied the claim — prompting the science center to appeal the decision. The contractor identified in the fire marshal’s report did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Alessi made the comments during an interview about a fundraiser this Friday, Sept. 13, at the Cinema Arts Centre community theater in Huntington, to raise both money and awareness of the plight of the embattled lab complex. The event will feature a screening of the director’s cut of the film “Invisible Threads — From Wireless to War,” followed by a Q & A with the filmmaker.

“There’s a lot of people on Long Island, despite all the reporting that’s been done, that aren’t aware of this project, and some of them are science enthusiasts and likely donors,” Mr. Alessi said. “So events like Friday night are really important to get out into the public consciousness, get people to learn more about [groundbreaking inventor Nikola] Tesla.”

The site was added to the U.S. National Historic Register in 2018. 

In the spring of 2023, the nonprofit foundation that runs the science center began an ambitious $20 million project to preserve Tesla’s last remaining laboratory and redevelop the 16-acre property into a world-class science center. The foundation had raised $14 million toward the $20 million goal — including $1 million from Elon Musk, who named his company after the inventor — when the project got underway.

Then, in November, a fire tore through the roof of the 10,000-square-foot lab and destroyed steel girders that date back to the turn of the 20th century.

“We’re looking to rehab whatever steel girders from Tesla’s time that we can,” Mr. Alessi said. “There’s probably not many that we could save, so we’re going to have to fabricate to that time period the steel girders, which is going to be an expensive proposition, and then just redo the roof.”

He said the foundation must raise a total of $10 million, which includes the $6 million yet to be raised for the overall project, $3 million in fire damages and another million needed to meet the increased costs of completing the redevelopment plan. In order to keep the project moving forward, according to Mr. Alessi, the foundation needs to raise at least $2.5 million in the next year.

The project is an effort to spotlight and celebrate one of the most remarkable innovators of the modern era.

Born in 1856 in what is now Croatia, Tesla moved to the U.S. at the age of 28 and became a naturalized U.S. citizen. He went to work for Thomas Edison, though he soon struck out on his own.

At the Shoreham site of the Tesla Science Center, he built a massive laboratory and a 187-foot wireless communication tower and power transmitter, both designed by famed architect Stanford White. The effort was called the Wardenclyffe Tower project, but it ran out of money before its completion.

A brilliant engineer but a hapless businessman, Tesla invented prototypes for a bounty of technologies that drive most modern communication, including wi-fi, radio, remote control and an induction motor powered by AC (alternating current), which outperformed his rival and former boss Edison’s DC (direct current) system.

“He never married or had a family — he just wanted to invent,” Mr. Alessi said. “He didn’t want to own things. He didn’t want to be Elon Musk, a CEO of a company. His mentality was ‘if I make billions for industrialists, they’ll always invest in my lab and I’ll live a good life and just invent things.’ He knew he had a unique mind for invention.”

In 1904, the prescient creator predicted the cellphone, describing a “cheap and simple receiving device, which might be carried in one’s pocket” to a Boston Sunday Globe reporter.

“One day, a businessman in New York will pull a device out of his pocket and call anywhere in the world, wirelessly,” Tesla told the newspaper, according to Mr. Alessi.

“In his time, that’s why people thought he was crazy, because he would say things like that,” the executive director said. “People couldn’t fathom it, but he knew where it would go.”

“He was part of our local community and he basically changed the world,” said Mr. Alessi, who lives three houses away from Tesla’s former home in Shoreham. “He was almost forgotten. This is his last standing lab — or the last authentic piece of history that touched him — and I think we all owe it to the man that has changed our lives to preserve his legacy.”

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Book Reviews

'the house is on fire' spotlights privilege, sexism, and racism in the 1800s.

Gabino Iglesias

Good historical fiction must bring to the page something that really happened while also filling in the blanks and treating character development, tension and even dialogue the same way fiction does.

Rachel Beanland's The House Is on Fire , which chronicles the burning of a theater and its tumultuous aftermath in Virginia in 1811, checks off all those elements while also tackling the rampant racism and misogyny of the times in the process.

On the night after Christmas in 1811, the Richmond Theater in Richmond, Virginia was full of people. The Placide & Green Company, a touring ensemble with more than 30 members, was putting on a play and the town was eager to see it. The place was packed and the play in progress when a fire broke out backstage thanks to a small oversight and some malfunctioning equipment. The fire spread quickly. With more than 600 people in attendance, chaos ensued. People ran for the door, trampling others in the process, while others jumped from the third floor in a desperate attempt to safe themselves. The staircase collapsed and the theater was soon engulfed in flames. Families and friends lost track of those they were with in the mayhem and many people died. Immediately after the horrific accident, some members of the Placide & Green Company decided to hide their role in the accident and instead spread lies about rebelling slaves with torches being responsible. A hunt for those responsible — and, thankfully, for the truth — followed.

The House Is on Fire is a mosaic historical novel told from the perspectives of four different people: Sally Henry Campbell, a recently widowed woman glad to relive the good times she had with her husband and who understands how the discourse changed after the fire and why it matters to set the record straight; Cecily Patterson, a young slave who has suffered years of abuse at the hands of her owners' son, is panicked about the possibility of being forced to go with him when he gets married, and decides to take advantage of the confusion and run away; Jack Gibson, a young stagehand who dreams of being an actor and one day working with the Placide & Green Company and who played a big role in the fire and wants the truth to come out; and Gilbert Hunt, a slave who works as a blacksmith — and becomes a hero during the fire — and is saving money in hopes of one day buying his wife's and then, if possible, his own freedom. The catastrophe, and the days that follow, bring them together in unexpected ways.

Beanland skillfully juggles the four main alternating points of view while also increasing the narrative's tension with each chapter. Between the lies, Sally's anger at the injustices around her, Cecily hiding and planning her escape to Philadelphia, Jack's constant fear and guilt, and Gilbert's bizarre position as an abused slave but also the town's hero after catching women who were jumping from the third floor, it's easy to forget that the events Beanland writes about actually happened. Also, given the plethora of secondary characters and subplots, it's incredible how much the author gets done with short chapters, lots of dialogue, and impeccable economy of language.

While much research went into this historical novel, the biggest challenge Beanland had was navigating the rampant racism and misogyny of the times, and she pulled it off with flying colors. The Black characters are as rich and complex as they deserved to be and their situation is presented in all its cruelty despite the fact that mental, physical, and sexual abuse of slaves was not uncommon at the time. Also, she delves deep into the sexism of the times, with Sally not only questioning things like why women aren't ever in the newspaper as interviewees but also doing everything she can to bring to light the truth about the cowardice displayed by most men once the fire broke out, after an article claims the men were yelling for their children and wives but it was "the other way around": "It's the women who were shrieking, while the men pushed past them — and in some cases, climbed over the them — to get to the door."

The House Is on Fire is wildly entertaining and it deals with touchy subjects very well. Sally, Cecily, Jack, and Gilbert all have unique voices and their stories are treated with equal care and attention, which speaks volumes not only about Beanland research skills but also the empathy she has for the people she writes about. This novel is a fictionalized slice of history, but in a time when so many treat teaching history as a taboo, it is also a stark reminder of how privilege, sexism, and racism have been in this country's DNA since its inception, and that makes it necessary reading.

Gabino Iglesias is an author, book reviewer and professor living in Austin, Texas. Find him on Twitter at @Gabino_Iglesias .

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THE HOUSE IS ON FIRE

by Rachel Beanland ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 4, 2023

An overly schematic approach to what could have been a fascinating retelling of history.

Beanland imagines how the devastating Richmond Theater fire, which killed 72 people on December 26, 1811, impacted several survivors, some more fictionalized than others.

The novel, which faithfully follows the recorded facts, begins backstage at the theater, where a teenage stagehand raises a chandelier lit with candles that sets the scenery on fire. Soon theatergoers are rushing to escape. Patrick Henry’s daughter Sally Henry Campbell, at the time a 31-year-old widow, selflessly saves those around her before jumping from a window. While nursing wounded survivors over the next few days, she learns that men she knew deliberately trampled over women to get to the stairs, and she concludes that White men of her privileged class are morally bankrupt in their behavior toward both White women and enslaved Black people. While Sally is trapped inside the theater, Gilbert Hunt, an enslaved blacksmith who has secretly learned to read and write, stands outside catching women who jump. While Gilbert is touted as a hero and one of the women he saved raises money to pay for his manumission, the theater company, afraid to take the blame itself, spreads rumors pinning responsibility for the fire on a “slave rebellion.” (The actual Gilbert, though also lauded, actually purchased his freedom years later.) Soon the slave patrol, headed by Gilbert’s owner, is rounding up Black people. Meanwhile, Gilbert’s niece Cecily Patterson decides that the fire, specifically all the bodies burned beyond recognition, might spell freedom if her owners believe she died. Beanland adeptly jumps among the characters’ stories and delights in conveying details of everyday life in 1811 Virginia. But she's heavy-handed in using the story to emphasize the evils of slavery, racism, and sexism. Locked within the author’s political message, characters like the progressive Sally, saintly Gilbert, and a variety of evil White men lack dimension. Only the young stagehand Jack Gibson is allowed to express the human complexity of moral decision-making as his sense of right conflicts with loyalty to his theatrical family.

Pub Date: April 4, 2023

ISBN: 9781982186142

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2023

HISTORICAL FICTION | GENERAL FICTION

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IT STARTS WITH US

by Colleen Hoover ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 18, 2022

Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.

The sequel to It Ends With Us (2016) shows the aftermath of domestic violence through the eyes of a single mother.

Lily Bloom is still running a flower shop; her abusive ex-husband, Ryle Kincaid, is still a surgeon. But now they’re co-parenting a daughter, Emerson, who's almost a year old. Lily won’t send Emerson to her father’s house overnight until she’s old enough to talk—“So she can tell me if something happens”—but she doesn’t want to fight for full custody lest it become an expensive legal drama or, worse, a physical fight. When Lily runs into Atlas Corrigan, a childhood friend who also came from an abusive family, she hopes their friendship can blossom into love. (For new readers, their history unfolds in heartfelt diary entries that Lily addresses to Finding Nemo star Ellen DeGeneres as she considers how Atlas was a calming presence during her turbulent childhood.) Atlas, who is single and running a restaurant, feels the same way. But even though she’s divorced, Lily isn’t exactly free. Behind Ryle’s veneer of civility are his jealousy and resentment. Lily has to plan her dates carefully to avoid a confrontation. Meanwhile, Atlas’ mother returns with shocking news. In between, Lily and Atlas steal away for romantic moments that are even sweeter for their authenticity as Lily struggles with child care, breastfeeding, and running a business while trying to find time for herself.

Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-668-00122-6

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Atria

Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022

ROMANCE | CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE | GENERAL ROMANCE | GENERAL FICTION

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by Colleen Hoover

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SEEN & HEARD

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 6, 2024

A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.

A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.

When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.

Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024

ISBN: 9781250178633

Page Count: 480

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023

FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP | GENERAL FICTION | HISTORICAL FICTION

More by Kristin Hannah

by Kristin Hannah

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July 23, 2000 Wild About Harry The fourth novel in J. K. Rowling's fantastically successful series about a young wizard. Related Links Featured Author: J. K. Rowling By STEPHEN KING HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE By J. K. Rowling. 734 pp. New York: Levine Books/Scholastic Press. $25.95. read the first novel in the Harry Potter series, ''Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone,'' in April 1999 and was only moderately impressed. But in April 1999 I was pretty much all right. Two months later I was involved in a serious road accident that necessitated a long and painful period of recuperation. During the early part of this period I read Potters 2 and 3 (''Chamber of Secrets,'' ''Prisoner of Azkaban'') and found myself a lot more than moderately wowed. In the miserably hot summer of '99, the Harry Potters (and the superb detective novels of Dennis Lehane) became a kind of lifeline for me. During July and August I found myself getting through my unpleasant days by aiming my expectations at evening, when I would drag my hardware-encumbered leg into the kitchen, eat fresh fruit and ice cream and read about Harry Potter's adventures at Hogwarts, a school for young wizards (motto: ''Never tickle a sleeping dragon''). For that reason, I awaited this summer's installment in J. K. Rowling's magical saga with almost as much interest as any Potter-besotted kid. I had enjoyed the first three, but had read the latter two while taking enough painkillers to levitate a horse. This summer, that's not the case. I'm relieved to report that Potter 4 -- ''Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'' -- is every bit as good as Potters 1 through 3. It's longer, though. ''Goblet'' is as long as ''Chamber'' and ''Prisoner'' combined. Is it more textured than the first three? More thought-provoking? Sorry, no. Are such things necessary in a fantasy-adventure aimed primarily at children and published in the lush green heart of summer vacation? Of course not. What kids on summer vacation want -- and probably deserve -- is simple, uncomplicated fun. ''Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'' brings the fun, and not just in stingy little buckets. At 734 pages, ''Goblet'' brings it by the lorry load. The most remarkable thing about this book is that Rowling's punning, one-eyebrow-cocked sense of humor goes the distance. At 700-plus pages, one should eventually tire of Blast-Ended Skrewts, Swedish Short-Snout dragons and devices like the Quick-Quotes Quill (a kind of magical tape recorder employed by the satisfyingly repugnant Daily Prophet reporter Rita Skeeter), but one never does. At the least this reader did not. Perhaps that's because Rowling doesn't dwell for long on such amusing inventions as the Quill, which floats in midair and bursts out with florid bits of tabloid prose at odd moments. She gives the reader a quick wink and a giggle before hustling him or her along again, all the while telling her tale at top speed. We go with this willingly enough, smiling bemusedly and waiting for the next nudge, wink and raised eyebrow. The Associated Press Featured Author: J. K. Rowling Puns and giggles aside, the story happens to be a good one. We may be a little tired of discovering Harry at home with his horrible aunt and uncle (plus his even more horrible cousin, Dudley, whose favorite PlayStation game is Mega-Mutilation Part 3), but once Harry has attended the obligatory Quidditch match and returned to Hogwarts, the tale picks up speed. In a Newsweek interview with Malcolm Jones, Rowling admitted to reading Tolkien rather late in the game, but it's hard to believe she hasn't read her Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. Although they bear the trappings of fantasy, and the mingling of the real world and the world of wizards and flying broomsticks is delightful, the Harry Potter books are, at heart, satisfyingly shrewd mystery tales. Potter 3 (''Azkaban'') dealt with Harry's parents (like all good boy heroes, Harry's an orphan) and cleared up the multiple mysteries of their deaths in a way that would likely have pleased Ross Macdonald, that longtime creator of hidden pasts and convoluted family trees. Now, returning to Hogwarts after attending the Quidditch World Cup, Harry and his friends are excited to learn that the Triwizard Tournament is to be reintroduced after a hiatus of 100 years or so (too many of the young contestants wound up dead, it seems). Aspiring wizards from two other schools (Beauxbatons and the amusingly fascistic Durmstrang Academy, location unknown) have been invited to spend the year at Hogwarts and compete in the contest, which is composed of three beautifully imagined tasks. These can only be performed well by contestants who can solve the riddles that bear on them; both children and students of Greek mythology will enjoy this aspect of Rowling's tale. Like the Sorting Hat, one of Rowling's early ingenious bits of invention, the Goblet of Fire is essentially a choosing device. It's supposed to spit out three flaming bits of parchment bearing the names of the three contestants in the tournament, one entrant from each school. In a vivid and marvelously tense scene, the Goblet of Fire spits out four parchment fragments instead of three. The fourth, of course, bears the name of Our Hero. Although Harry is supposedly too young to compete in such a dangerous series of tilts, the Goblet has spoken, and of course Harry must step into the arena. If you think young readers won't lap this up, you never had one in your house (or were one yourself). Adults are apt to be more interested in just how Harry's name got into the Goblet in the first place. This is a mystery Rowling works out with snap and verve. And, unlike the denouements I remember from the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mysteries of my youth, where the culprit usually turned out to be some vile tramp of the lower classes, the solution to the Goblet mystery, like the answers to the Triwizard riddles, struck me as fair enough. A long the way, Rowling gives us Harry's first date (not with the alluring fifth-level dream girl Cho Chang, unfortunately), at least one thought-provoking subplot (involving house-elves who rather enjoy their status as kitchen slaves) and an extremely large dose of adolescent humor (one mildly off-color joke, punning on the word Uranus, will likely go over the heads of most grade-school readers and amuse the brighter junior high school set). There's also a moderately tiresome amount of adolescent squabbling. Adults can safely speed through these bits; it's a teenage thing. Can anyone wonder at the fabulous sales success of these books? The Harry Potter series is a supernatural version of ''Tom Brown's Schooldays,'' updated and given a hip this-is-how-kids-really-are shine. And Harry is the kid most children feel themselves to be, adrift in a world of unimaginative and often unpleasant adults -- Muggles, Rowling calls them -- who neither understand them nor care to. Harry is, in fact, a male Cinderella, waiting for someone to invite him to the ball. In Potter 1, his invitation comes first by owl (in the magic world of J. K. Rowling, owls deliver the mail) and then by Sorting Hat; in the current volume it comes from the Goblet of Fire, smoldering and shedding glamorous sparks. How nice to be invited to the ball! Even for a relatively old codger like me, it's still nice to be invited to the ball. It would be depressing to announce that the best-selling book in the history of the world, a position this book will probably hold only until Potter 5 comes along, is a stinker. ''Goblet of Fire'' is far from that. Before Harry appeared on the scene, escape-hungry kids had to make do with R. L. Stine, the uninspired but wildly successful journeyman who inspired the ''Goosebumps'' phenomenon. Rowling's books are better natured, better plotted and better written. They bulge with the sort of playful details of which only British fantasists seem capable: there's the Whomping Willow, which will smash hell out of your car (and you) if you get too close to it, snack foods like Cauldron Cakes and Licorice Wands and the satisfyingly evil Lord Voldemort (so evil, in fact, that most of Rowling's characters will only call him ''You-know-who''). The Dursleys, Harry's unpleasant guardians, explain the boy's long absences by telling their friends that Harry attends St. Brutus's Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Boys. And the book opens with the murder (offstage, don't worry) of a witch named Bertha Jorkins. Rowling doesn't exactly come out and say it's what the unfortunate Bertha deserves for taking her vacation in Albania, but she certainly implies it. Is there more going on here than fun? Again, not much. In a good deal of British fantasy fiction, the amusing inventions are balanced by themes of increasing darkness -- Tolkien's ''Rings'' trilogy, for instance, in which the fascism of Mordor begins as a distant bad smell on the breeze and develops into a pervasive atmosphere of dread, or C. S. Lewis's Narnia books, in which the writer's religious concerns invest what begin as harmless make-believe adventures with a significance that becomes, in the end, almost unbearable (and to this reader, rather tiresome). Taken to its extreme, the id of British fantasy produces a Richard Adams, where the unfortunate talking dogs Snitter and Rowf suffer almost unspeakable hardships and the bear-god Shardik comes to stand for all the promises religion ever made and then broke; where every sunlit field of scampering rabbits conceals its shining wire of death. In Rowling's work, such shadows can be perceived, but they are thin shadows, quickly dispelled. Harry's adventures remain for the most part upbeat and sunny, despite the occasional cold pockets of gruel; more Lewis Carroll than George Orwell. The British fantasy they may actually be closest to is J. M. Barrie's ''Peter Pan.'' Like any school, where the clientele is perpetually young and even the teachers begin to assume the immature psychological characteristics of their pupils, Hogwarts is a kind of Never-Never Land. Yet Harry and his friends show some reassuring signs of growing up eventually. In the current volume there is some discreet necking, and at least a few sorrows and disappointments that need coping with. The fantasy writer's job is to conduct the willing reader from mundanity to magic. This is a feat of which only a superior imagination is capable, and Rowling possesses such equipment. She has said repeatedly that the Potter novels are not consciously aimed at any particular audience or age. The reader may reasonably question that assertion after reading the first book in the series, but by the time he or she has reached ''Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,'' it becomes increasingly clear that the lady means what she says. Nor can there be any question that her stated refusal to dumb down the language of the books (the current one is presented with such British terms as petrol, pub and cuppa unchanged) has lent the stories an attraction to adults that most children's novels simply don't have. Not all the news is good. Harry Potter will soon be appearing at a multiplex near you. The initial project is being helmed by Chris Columbus, a filmmaker of no demonstrable ingenuity; one doubts if the director of ''The Goonies,'' one of the loudest, dumbest and most shriekingly annoying children's movies ever made, is up to bringing Rowling's scatty wit and vibrant imagination to the screen. (I hope, on behalf of the millions of children who love Harry, Hermione and Ron Weasley, that Columbus will prove me wrong.) Fantasy, even that as sturdy and uncomplicated as this Young Wizard's Progress, is difficult to bring to film, where the wonders are all too often apt to shrink and become banal. Perhaps Harry Potter's place is in the imaginations of his readers. And if these millions of readers are awakened to the wonders and rewards of fantasy at 11 or 12 . . . well, when they get to age 16 or so, there's this guy named King. Stephen King's ''On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft'' is coming out this fall. 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