Moshin Hamid
Mohsin Hamid’s latest novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Penguin 2008), was shortlisted for the 2007 Man Booker Prize for fiction. His first, Moth Smoke won a Betty Trask award, was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway award, a New York Times ‘Notable Book of the Year’ and was published in ten languages.
Mohsin Hamid grew up in Lahore, Pakistan but attended Princeton University and Harvard Law School, working for several years as a management consultant in New York. The Reluctant Fundamendalist’s main character, Changez, explores the political and personal views of an immigrant like himself in the wake and aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The New York Times describes it as “elegant and chilling… A less sophisticated author might have told a one-note story in which an immigrant’s experiences of discrimination and ignorance cause his alienation. But Hamid’s novel…is distinguished by its portrayal of Changez’s class aspirations and inner struggle.” Phillip Pullman called it “beautifully written and superbly constructed… more exciting than any thriller I’ve read for a long time, as well as being a subtle and elegant analysis of the state of our world today.”
Mohsin Hamid currently lives and works in London.
www.moshinhamid.com
“A brilliant book. With spooky restraint and masterful control, Hamid unpicks the underpinnings of the most recent episode of distrust between East and West. The narrative is balanced by a love as powerful as the sinister forces gathering, even when it recedes into a phantom of hope.”
Kiran Desai
Links:
- Moshin Hamid talks about tapping into the reader’s imagination
- Listen to The Reluctant Fundamentalist on NPR radio
Video:
Moshin Hamid interview on Newsnight, talking about the Mumbai attacks:
