Dig the new breed: Kamila Shamsie, writer

In the wake of Zadie Smith and Salman Rushdie, the post-colonial complex continues to yield no end of fruits in English fiction. 28-year-old Pakistani writer Kamila Shamsie looks set to break through this year with her third book Kartography due in May. The novel, a love-song to her hometown Karachi, follows her first two books In The City By The Sea (1997) and Salt And Saffron (2000).

Largely ignored by the literati until now, Shamsie, who comes from three generations of literary Pakistani women, divides her time between London and Pakistan. She lived in Karachi until she was 18, before attending university in the USA, and unsurprisingly her work is characterised by themes of partition and exile. Last September the Orange Prize For Fiction earmarked her as one of the 21 writers for the 21st Century, and as well as writing fiction, she also contributes to Prospect and The Guardian.

Some months ago she was asked to speak on the subject of September 11th on the same panel as Stephen Fry, David Hare and Richard Dawkins.