The Reluctant Fundamentalist: Mohsin Hamid (Penguin Essentials, 68) - Softcover

Hamid, Mohsin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0241981387 ISBN 13: 9780241981382

Publisher: Penguin, 2017

Synopsis

The Reluctant Fundamentalist is Mohsin Hamid's thrillingly provocative international bestseller, available as a Penguin Essential for the first time.

Shortlisted for the Man Booker prize in 2007

Now a major film directed by Mira Nair and starring Kate Hudson and Kiefer Sutherland

'Excuse me, sir, but may I be of assistance? Ah, I see I have alarmed you. Do not be frightened by my beard. I am a lover of America . . . '

So speaks the mysterious stranger at a Lahore cafe as dusk settles. Invited to join him for tea, you learn his name and what led this speaker of immaculate English to seek you out. For he is more worldy than you might expect; better travelled and better educated. He knows the West better than you do. And as he tells you his story, of how he embraced the Western dream -- and a Western woman -- and how both betrayed him, so the night darkens. Then the true reason for your meeting becomes abundantly clear . . .

Challenging, mysterious and thrillingly tense, Mohsin Hamid's masterly The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a vital read teeming with questions and ideas about some of the most pressing issues of today's globalised, fractured world.

'Masterful . . . A multi-layered and thoroughly gripping book, which works as a poignant love story, a powerful dissection of how US imperialist machinations have turned so many people against the world's superpower - and as a thriller that subtly ratchets up the nerve-jangling tension towards an explosive ending' Metro

'Beautifully written . . . more exciting than any thriller I've read for a long time' Philip Pullman

'A brilliant book' Kiran Desai

'Admirably spare and amazingly exciting' Rachel Cooke, New Statesman

Mohsin Hamid is the author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Moth Smoke and How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia. His fiction has been translated into over 30 languages, received numerous awards, and been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. He has contributed essays and short stories to publications such as the Guardian, The New York Times, Financial Times, Granta, and Paris Review. Born and mostly raised in Lahore, he spent part of his childhood in California, studied at Princeton University and Harvard Law School, and has since lived between Lahore, London, and New York.

About this title

Review:

Gripping... remains taut until the final pages...an elegant and sharp indictment of the clouds of suspicion that now shroud our world (Observer)

A quietly told, cleverly constructed fable of infatuation and disenchantment with America, set on the treacherous faultlines of current east/west relations, and finely tuned to the ironies of mutual - but especially American - prejudice and misrepresentation...increasingly tense...genuinely provocative...intelligent, highly engaging (Guardian)

Elegant, provocative . . . beautifully measured prose . . . a delicate meditation on the nature of perception and prejudice (Daily Mail)

Masterful . . . A multi-layered and thoroughly gripping book, which works as a poignant love story, a powerful dissection of how US imperialist machinations have turned so many people against the world's superpower - and as a thriller that subtly ratchets up the nerve-jangling tension towards an explosive ending (Metro)

The Reluctant Fundamentalist is an important book (Evening Standard)

A fantastic piece of work, superbly considered and controlled, with a lovely stillness and wisdom at its heart (The Times)

Beautifully written (Philip Pullman)

A profoundly contemporary story about civil wars, unstable countries and refugees pouring to the cities of the West... beautifully written, with the ghost of Camus hovering at the edge of the frame (New Statesman)

From the Back Cover:

'I see I have alarmed you.
Do not be frightened by my beard.
I am a lover of America . . .'
At a Lahore café one evening you meet a mysterious stranger. He asks you to join him for tea and, speaking impeccable English, he begins to tell you his story. It is the tale of how as a young man he went to America and embraced the Western dream and even took a Western lover. As the night darkens, you learn of the souring of his dream and his love, of his feelings of anger and betrayal. And finally the true reason for this chance meeting becomes abundantly clear . . .

'I closed the book with a shudder. Sharp, relevant, impressively intelligent. Entertains at the same time as it makes you think' Daily Telegraph

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0241981387
• ISBN 13: 9780241981382
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224