Burnt Shadows

Kim Burton, Harry’s 15-year-old American daughter, rides with Harry through Islamabad on a visit. Harry and Kim’s mother are divorced, and Harry and Kim’s relationship is strained by Harry’s professional need for secrecy. Kim says that Harry is happier in Islamabad than in New York City. Harry tells Kim that he hates the place but loves the people. Harry remembers being bullied at his English boarding school for being half-German and how he eventually found friends among his more diverse classmates in America when he moved to New York to be with his mother, Ilse.

Harry reassures Kim that he misses her, but Kim is annoyed by Harry’s commitment to his cover story even in their private moments and tells him, “Drop the consular-officer crap, Dad” (174). Harry, worried that his car is bugged, pulls over and demands Kim apologize, which she does, ashamed that her teenage attitude could cause her to endanger her father. Harry struggles with his own shame over the fact that although he misses his daughter, he is living exactly the life he wants to live. At first an idealistic recruit to the CIA, Harry grew to appreciate the excitement of the job more than his belief in America as a superpower “nation of migrants” (175).