The friends we make in childhood can remain with us for life. They become the people who have known us through thick and thin, and lift us up when things are down.

But, in a world of polarised politics, is it possible to hang on to friendships that are based on the innocence of youth?

Best Of Friends, the new novel by Kamila Shamsie follows Zhara and Maryam across two parts of their lives: the end of the dictatorship in Pakistan, when the girls are 14, and the adult women they become in London, decades later.