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Title details for The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid - Available

The Reluctant Fundamentalist

A Novel

by Mohsin Hamid
Satya Bhabha
Audiobook
2 of 2 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
2 of 2 copies available

At a café table in Lahore, a bearded Pakistani man converses with a suspicious, and possibly armed, 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 Underwood Samson, an elite firm that specializes in the valuation of companies ripe for acquisition. He thrives on the energy of New York. But in the wake of September 11, he finds his position in his adopted city suddenly overturned. And Changez's own identity is in seismic shift as well, unearthing allegiances more fundamental than money, power, and perhaps even love.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    January 15, 2008

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780792748403
      • File size: 135822 KB
      • Duration: 04:42:57

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      In this short novel, a bearded man in a Pakistan café spends a few hours telling his life story to a mysterious American. Because the tale is told as a monologue--the Pakistani speaking directly to his companion--the audiobook listener assumes the surrogate position of the American. The Pakistani, a former Wall Street whiz kid, tells a tale of reaction--how his return to Pakistan and his subsequent nationalism were prompted by the way he was treated in post-9/11 New York. It's never clear from narrator Satya Bhabha's focused performance whether the American is there to befriend or harm the Pakistani. Ultimately that ambiguity makes the story all the more interesting because it puts the symbolic choice in the listener's hands. R.W.S. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      December 11, 2006
      Hamid's second book (after Moth
      \t\t Smoke      ) is an intelligent and absorbing 9/11 novel, written from the
      \t\t perspective of Changez, a young Pakistani whose sympathies, despite his fervid
      \t\t immigrant embrace of America, lie with the attackers. The book unfolds as a
      \t\t monologue that Changez delivers to a mysterious American operative over dinner
      \t\t at a Lahore, Pakistan, cafe. Pre-9/11, Princeton graduate Changez is on top of
      \t\t the world: recruited by an elite New York financial company, the 22-year-old
      \t\t quickly earns accolades from his hard-charging supervisor, plunges into
      \t\t Manhattan's hip social whirl and becomes infatuated with Erica, a fellow
      \t\t Princeton graduate pining for her dead boyfriend. But after the towers fall,
      \t\t Changez is subject to intensified scrutiny and physical threats, and his
      \t\t co-workers become markedly less affable as his beard grows in ("a form of
      \t\t protest," he says). Erica is committed to a mental institution, and Changez,
      \t\t upset by his adopted country's "growing and self-righteous rage," slacks off at
      \t\t work and is fired. Despite his off-putting commentary, the damaged Changez
      \t\t comes off as honest and thoughtful, and his creator handles him with a
      \t\t sympathetic grace.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      May 28, 2007
      Hamid grabs hold of the American Dream as seen through the eyes of a young Princeton grad from Pakistan in a post-9/11 world. As the protagonist, Changez, finds moderate business success and romantic love in New York City, his heritage and identity will be lost in a sea of subtle and blatant bigotry as well as international politics. In relating this journey from loving to loathing of all things American, Changez speaks to a nameless and speechless American whom he encounters in the marketplace of his home city, Lahore, Pakistan. Bhabha’s English-influenced Pakistani accent proves soothing and inviting for listeners. His gentle demeanor captures the courteous and polite manner of Changez. His American accent comes in the form of a Midwestern accent with a confident—almost arrogant—lilt. He lapses when it comes to vocalizing women. Though lighter, his voice exudes a stoic resonance instead of a feminine one. But the casual tone of Changez telling his life story translates perfectly with the help of Bhabha’s velvet voice. Simultaneous release with the Harcourt hardcover (Reviews, Dec. 11).

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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