The Reluctant Fundamentalist

(Paperback)

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Mohsin Hamid's provocative, elegant and gripping novel, available as a Penguin Essential for the first time '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 her 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 . . .

Reviews

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 *

Author Bio

Mohsin Hamid writes regularly for The New York Times, the Guardian and the New York Review of Books, and is the author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Moth Smoke, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia and Discontent and its Civilisations. Born and mostly raised in Lahore, he has since lived between Lahore, London and New York. His next novel, Exit West, will be published by Hamish Hamilton in spring 2017.