Review of Kamila Shamsie’s Best of Friends

Published : Oct 20, 2022 10:25 IST Love and friendship are the stuff of novels. Ltd 336 pages Price: Rs.599 Maryam and Zahra have been best friends since their nursery days at Karachi’s most prestigious school. Zahra is a high-profile civil liberties lawyer, heading her own NGO, frequently on television; Maryam is a successful entrepreneur, funding start-ups, dining with prime ministers, and hiring private boxes at Lord’s cricket ground. And the best friends are still close, despite Zahra’s unconcealed disapproval of Maryam’s business-friendly, right-wing ideologies and Maryam’s exasperation with Zahra’s self-righteous, moral-high-ground liberalism. On the other side, Maryam found Zahra’s smug appropriation of the moral high ground infuriating, especially since it was Zahra who got into the car with Jimmy and Hammad, despite Maryam’s attempts to refuse.