At LitHub Emily Temple tagged ten top contemporary novels by and about Muslims, including:
Mohsin Hamid, The Reluctant Fundamentalist
This bestselling novel takes the form of a long monologue, as Changez, a young Pakistani man, tells his story to an American in a cafe. Since Changez had been living, by some standards at least, the American Dream before 9/11, his reaction to the disaster is strange: “I stared as one—and then the other—of the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center collapsed. And then I smiled. Yes, despicable as it may sound, my initial reaction was to be remarkably pleased.” But this reaction confuses him, and soon everything begins to change.
Read about
the other entries on the list.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist is among
Laila Lalami's eight top books about Muslim life for a nation that knows little about Islam,
Porochista Khakpour's top ten novels about 9/11,
Jimmy So's five best 9/11 novels, and
Ahmede Hussain's five top books in recent South Asian literature.
The Page 69 Test: The Reluctant Fundamentalist.
--Marshal Zeringue
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