Reviews

"Far from seeming bothered by the literariness of literature, Mohsin Hamid appears to savor it. Ambiguity starts out as the delicate organizing principle of his novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist. By the end of the book it has turned into the disturbing payoff."

—New York Review of Books

"There's an almost delightful allegorical symmetry to the flow of events, as well as a sensuousness and finish that might belong to some other form of art: music, perhaps. Despite its minute probing into the narrator's thoughts, this is not a conventional psychological novel; much of its magic--the enchantment and innocence of the relationship, the absolute familiarity and foreignness of America, the fragrant boisterousness and menace of Lahore--hinges on the unsaid. Hamid manages marvellously well in creating a novel that's rendered entirely in terms of the spoken word, and governed by the shape of what's evaded or not uttered."

—London Review of Books

"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

"Mohsin Hamid's forthcoming novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, artfully carves out its own stillness amid the urgent befuddlement of these turbulent times."

—Hisham Matar

"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

"A searing and powerful account of a Pakistani in New York after 9/11."

—Mira Nair, director of The Namesake

"This novel's firm, steady, even beautiful voice proclaims the completeness of the soul when personal and global issues are conjoined."

—Booklist

"A superb cautionary tale"

—Publishers Weekly