The Reluctant Fundamentalist: A Novel
Harcourt, April 2007
At a cafe table in Lahore, a bearded Pakistani man converses with an uneasy American stranger. As dusk deepens to night, he begins the tale that has brought them to this fateful meeting . . .
Changez is living an immigrant's dream of America. At the top of his class at Princeton, he is snapped up by the elite "valuation" firm of Underwood Samson. He thrives on the energy of New York, and his infatuation with elegant, beautiful Erica promises entry into Manhattan society at the same exalted level once occupied by his own family back in Lahore.
But in the wake of September 11, Changez finds his position in his adopted city suddenly overturned, and his budding relationship with Erica eclipsed by the reawakened ghosts of her past. And Changez's own identity is in seismic shift as well, unearthing allegiances more fundamental than money, power, and maybe even love.
hardcover | ISBN: 9780151013043 | Publication Date: April 2007
Reviews:
"I read Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist with
increasing admiration. It is beautifully written -- what a joy it is to find
such intelligent prose, such clarity of thought and exposition -- and superbly
constructed. The author has managed to tighten the screw of suspense almost
without our being aware it is happening, and the result is a tale of enormous
tension. I read a lot of thrillers -- or rather I start reading a lot of
thrillers, and put most of them down -- but this is 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. I was enormously impressed."
--Philip Pullman
"A brilliant book. With spooky restraint and masterful control, Hamid
unpicks the underpinnings of the most recent episode of distrust between East
and West. But this book does not merely excel in capturing a developing
bitterness. The narrative is balanced by a love as powerful as the sinister
forces gathering, even when it recedes into a phantom of hope. It is this
balance, and the constant negotiation of the political with the personal, that
creates a nuanced and complex portrait of a reluctant fundamentalist."
--Kiran Desai
