British-Pakistani author Kamila Shamsie’s recent novel Home Fire, has been on a winning streak and in the latest it has been awarded 2017’s £10,000 London Hellenic Prize.
The prize celebrates “the cultural cross-fertilisation of the Greek and English-speaking worlds” and this year was judged by a six-strong panel chaired by Dr Jennifer Wallace (Peterhouse, Cambridge). The book won the award against submissions from 102 authors and 33 publishers received from across the globe.
According to a statement on the official Hellenic Prize website, “Upon conclusion of a heated debate in the grounds of New College, Oxford, Kamila Shamsie was chosen as the winner of the 2017 Prize for her novel Home Fire.”
Shamsie received the award on Monday night at a ceremony in the Great Hall of Kings College London although the winner was announced on October 15.
Kamila shared her excitement on Twitter, writing, “You can’t ask for more than the combo of winning a prize and being introduced by one of your favourite writers/people.”
You can’t ask for more than the combo of winning a prize and being introduced by one of your favourite writers/people. #londonhellenicprize https://t.co/HHfoW9C9DM
— Kamila Shamsie (@kamilashamsie) November 27, 2018
Home Fire is Shamsie’s seventh work of prose and follows the life of a British Muslim woman and her family members, all of whom are dispersed around the world. It deals with the linkages between a Pakistani family, their bonds tightening and loosening, their fears and long-lost hopes, against the backdrop of terrorism.
Last year, Home Fire won the Women’s Prize for fiction and is currently in the running for the $25k DSC Prize for South Asian Literature.
