Thems in Kamila Shamsie’s Novel Broken Verses – A Study

Exploring universal themes and personal struggles in a Karachi-based narrative

Abstract

British Pakistani author Kamila Shamsie’s riveting novel Broken Verses weaves intrigue, suspense, politics, and a mother-daughter tale into a Karachi-based narrative, exploring universal themes love, loss, politics, activism, feminism, hope, and trauma. Aasmaani Inqalab, the thirty-year-old protagonist, faces each of the narrative’s themes as she unpacks the startling mystery surrounding her mother’s disappearance fourteen year earlier. Complicating this disappearance is the presumed death of her mother’s lover, a famous Pakistani poet who was reportedly beaten to death two years earlier by government henchmen. Rootless, without answers, and suffering from abandonment issues, Aasmaani moves from job to job, in her thirties and single. Shamsie is multi-award winning author. In 2005, Broken Verses won the Patras Bokhari Award from the Academy of Letters in Pakistan.