Kamila and Miriam discuss what would have happened if, after graduating from university, she had not been able to attend her creative writing MFA in Massachusetts, and therefore returned home to Karachi instead of staying in America, where she met her then agent and now longtime editor Alexandra Pringle.

Along the way they discuss the destructive nature of guilt, the implications of early setbacks and successes, and how a new friendship is a lot like a romance.

Kamila Shamsie was born and grew up in Karachi, Pakistan and now lives in London, and is the author of eight novels including Burnt Shadows, A God in Every Stone and Home Fire, which won the Women’s Prize for fiction in 2018. Her work has been translated into over 30 languages, she is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and she is professor of creative writing at the University of Manchester. Her most recent novel, Best of Friends, is out now and available in all good bookshops and on Bookshop.org.

Make sure to subscribe to hear the rest of Season 3 – in each episode, Miriam Robinson interviews a guest about another path their life might have taken. Together, step by step, they write the stories of their unlived lives.

Produced by Neil Mason

#MyUnlivedLife

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