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Chapter 1 – Isma
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Home Fire, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Islam, Nationality, and Identity.
Familial Love, Protection, and Betrayal
Fathers, Sons, and Inheritance
Stereotypes vs. Individuality
Summary
Analysis
Isma is back at her favorite café, trying to ignore Eamonn sitting across the room, when he comes over to her and asks to share lunch with her. She agrees. He tells her that he has family in Preston Road, and she chooses not to acknowledge that she knows exactly where Karamat’s family used to live. They share memories of an old Pakistani song, though he admits he doesn’t understand the Urdu lyrics. Isma asks Eamonn if he knows “bay-takalufi,” and he has some understanding of its meaning: being informal and comfortable with another person to express friendship or intimacy. They agree to share this informality and comfort with one another.
As Isma and Eamonn forge a friendship, even their small talk highlights the differences between them. Isma’s family and neighbors have clearly made an effort to retain parts of their Pakistani heritage, even as a part of their British identity. For Eamonn, on the other hand, Karamat’s goal has always been to integrate and (as he puts it in a speech later) to not differentiate himself from the larger British culture.
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Isma continues her routine; over the next few days she watches Skype religiously and receive updates from Aneeka that Parvaiz is still checking in with her. She and Eamonn also develop a routine together, buying each other coffee at midmorning and catching up on the news together. Isma asks him more about his life, like what will happen when his savings run out. Eamonn admits that the savings are his mother Terry’s, and that she has tried to instill in him that there is more to life than work. His mother wants him to find meaning in life beyond paychecks and promotions. Isma finds the idea compelling, but she thinks that Eamonn should be doing more to pursue it.
This exchange sets up some of the tension between Eamonn and his father. Eamonn (particularly due to his mother’s wealth) has grown up in a world of privilege that Karamat never had. And because Eamonn’s sister Emily is treated as the successful, hardworking child, Eamonn often feels that there are low expectations set for him. The burden of this inescapable inheritance is part of the reason that Eamonn ultimately rebels against his father’s wishes to prove that he can be his own man.
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One morning, Eamonn is late meeting Isma, and she quickly finds out why. Aneeka texts her saying that Karamat has been made the new Home Secretary. Isma instantly opens the internet and the first article she reads describes him as “a man ‘from a Muslim background’” which Isma feels implies that his “Muslim-ness [is] something he [has] boldly stridden away from.” Isma receives a series of messages, reading things like “It’s all going to get worse,” and “He has to prove he’s one of them, not one of us.”
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Eamonn arrives just then, telling Isma about the good news—his father Karamat has just been appointed Home Secretary. At first Isma tries to feign ignorance about knowing who his father is. Eamonn confesses that he’s been staying in America to hide from the “old muck” that people will say about him. Isma remembers the “old muck,” when Karamat was criticized for entering a mosque. His response was to point out that the picture was several years old and he had only been there for a funeral; otherwise he would never enter a “gender-segregated space.” He was then criticized and voted out by his Muslim-majority constituency, but he returned to Parliament later in a seat with a white-majority constituency.
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Isma notes that Eamonn and Karamat must be very close. Eamonn explains that it’s like any father-son relationship; that fathers are “our guides into manhood.” He then elaborates, saying “we want to be like them, we want to be better than them.” But he notes that in his case, that would be a futile goal. Isma disagrees, saying that Eamonn is a much better person. Eamonn catches this remark, noting that Isma must have already known that they were related and lied about it. He correctly surmises that she is one of “the Muslims who say those ugly things about him.” Eamonn then gives her a final goodbye.
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Isma feels a deep sense of loss, which she chides herself for, as she and Eamonn didn’t have a real relationship anyway. Later, while hosting Isma for dinner, Dr. Hira Shah says that Isma could try explaining why she feels the way she does. Hira recalls that when she taught Isma, she thought Isma found her offensive. Isma remembers interrupting her lecture on control orders and their impact on civil liberties to point out that Britain has had a long history of depriving people of their rights, and that control orders often target citizens who are “rhetorically being made un-British,” focusing instead on their religion or their descent.
In the present, Hira affirms that Isma should be open with Eamonn about her family and her history so that he can see her perspective. She also counsels Isma to “reconsider the hijab” because it might be putting him at a distance. When Isma protests that she doesn’t want anything from him “in that way,” Hira tells her that the Quran says to “enjoy sex as one of God’s blessings.” Isma protests that it says so “within marriage,” and Hira counters: “We all have our versions of selective reading when it comes to the Holy Book.”
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That evening, Isma is woken up abruptly by a call from Aneeka. Isma immediately worries that something has happened to Parvaiz, but instead Aneeka accuses her of telling the police what Parvaiz did, making him unable to come home—she heard Aunty Naseem talking about it. Isma tells Aneeka that the police would have found out anyway, and that she didn’t want “to let the state question [their] loyalties” and she wanted to protect Aneeka.
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Aneeka is deeply upset, telling Isma that Parvaiz is not Adil and accusing her of betraying her and Parvaiz. She tells Isma not to talk to her again, saying, “We have no sister.” Isma tries to call Aneeka back, to no avail. She gets up and pulls out her prayer rug, praying for comfort, but she cannot make herself feel better.
Aunty Naseem calls Isma, apologizing for her role in the feud, and though Isma is angry she says that it was a simple mistake. Isma crawls back into bed, and finds that she misses Eamonn. She impulsively sends him a text, explaining that she wants to tell him about her family. He comes her apartment more quickly than she expected, before she can put on a headscarf. She can tell he is uncertain about how to interact with her without her hijab. They make polite conversation before he notices a photo of Isma with Aneeka. He comments on her “attractive family” before complimenting Isma’s hair.
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Isma and Eamonn quickly move on to talking about her father, Adil. Isma explains that she barely knew him; she has no memories of him before the first time he abandoned her family. He reappeared when Isma was eight, and despite Zainab’s protests, he gradually came back into her good graces and she became pregnant with the twins. Then he was gone again, to aid a convoy in Bosnia as a jihadi. Isma never saw him again, though he wrote a note occasionally or called to hear Parvaiz’s voice.
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Isma continues: a few months after Adil disappeared, MI5 came around to ask about him. Then, in 2004, a Pakistani man was released from Guantánamo who contacted Isma’s family to say that he and Adil were imprisoned and put on a plane to Guantánamo together in 2002, but Adil died during takeoff from “some sort of seizure.” They still haven’t been officially contacted by anyone to inform them that he is dead.
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Isma explains that her family is forbidden to talk about it, and the family only told Aunty Naseem and one other person: Karamat Lone. Isma’s family asked Karamat’s family to go to him, to see if he would find out any information about what happened to Adil and whether he was buried. Karamat’s response was, “They’re better off without him.”
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Eamonn apologizes for everything Isma has suffered. He says that it’s harder for Karamat because of his background. He explains, “everything he did, even the wrong choices, were because he had a sense of purpose. Public service, national good, British values. He deeply believes in these things.” Isma is amazed at this defense, thinking that “in the end they were always their father’s sons.”
Eamonn suggests that Isma meet Karamat, though Isma is doubtful that she’d feel better about him after a meeting. He says that Karamat would be nice to her, because now that Eamonn has seen her hair uncovered he’s basically her brother. Isma then says she has to leave, and that she won’t go to the café today. Eamonn says this is probably the last time that they’ll see each other, because he’s leaving the next day. He thanks her for being a “fantastic coffee companion.”
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Eamonn hugs Isma awkwardly, then gets up to leave. He then notices a package of M&Ms she has been meaning to send to Aunty Naseem in London. He offers to send it when he gets back. She thanks him for doing so. He leaves with a final, “Bye, sis,” and after he has gone, Isma kneels down and weeps.
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