#moth smoke

[book-challenger]

Travel Destination: Pakistan II

Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal

A modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice set in Pakistan

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a girl can go from pauper to princess or princess to pauper in the mere seconds it takes for her to accept a proposal. But Alys Binat is resolute she will not marry.

Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid

Daru Shezad was just fired from his banking job, and instantly removes himself from the ranks of Pakistan's cell-phone-toting elite and plunges into a life of drugs and crime.

But when a heist goes awry, Daru finds himself on trial for a murder he may or may not have committed.

No Funeral for Nazia by Taha Kehar

Nazia Sami is a celebrated author, but perhaps her greatest plot twist is yet to be produced. In her final days, she wields a pen one last time as she fills her diary with instructions for her sister, Naureen, and writes six letters to be delivered after her death.

There is to be no funeral for Nazia. Instead, only six invitees are asked to attend a party, one of whom is a mystery guest. Over the course of an extraordinary evening, secrets are revealed, pasts reconsidered, and lives are forever changed.

Amir and the Jinn Princess by M.T. Khan

Amir has lived all his life in splendour, being the son of a wealthy businessman. But when his mother disappears at his father’s factory, Amir is the only one who feels sure she’s not gone forever.

When a strange jinn shows up on his doorstep with clues to his mother’s whereabouts, Amir finds himself following Shamsa into the realm of the jinn – a world of trickery, tests and deceit.

But could his mother also be hiding in this world of pink seas and purple skies, and could a jinn princess be his key to finding her?

To Lahore with Love by Hina Belitz

Addy Mayford has always struggled with her identity. Brought up in a household of stories, food and faith by her Irish mother and Pakistani Nana, she feels constantly torn between the two sides of her upbringing. Since the death of her father, she's found contentment cooking delicious recipes from his home city of Lahore, despite the protestations of her mother that being a chef is no career for a young woman. It's only with the love of her gorgeous husband, Gabe, that she's truly found happiness.

When Addy stumbles across a secret that shatters her world, she desperately needs to escape and is drawn to the sights of Lahore and the family she's never known. Waiting for her there is Addy's final acceptance of who she is, and a long-buried family secret that will change her life for ever.

[quotespile]

Slowly, even though I thought it would never happen, New York lost its charm for me. I remember arriving in the city for the first time, passing with my parents through the First World's Club bouncers at Immigration, getting into a massive cab that didn't have a moment to waste, and falling in love as soon as we shot onto the bridge and I saw Manhattan rise up through the looks of parental terror reflected in the window. I lost my virginity in New York, twice (the second one wanted to believe he was the first so badly). I had my mind blown open by the combination of a liberal arts education and a drug-popping international crowd. I became tough. I had fun. I learned so much... But now New York was starting to feel empty, a great party that had gone on too long and was showing no sign of ending soon. I had a headache, and I was tired. I'd danced enough. I wanted a quiet conversation with someone who knew what load-shedding was.

Mohsin Hamid, Moth Smoke

[litsnaps]

[quotessentially]

From Mohsin Hamid’s Moth Smoke

[thatsjustallright]

Hamid, Mohsin. Moth Smoke

I read this book recently. It is so beautifully written. Everything is very nicely explained and with the subtlety Mohsin Hamid has portrayed each character in the novel is exquisite.

[dissidentlibrary]

Why should you read...

MOHSIN HAMID ?

First...for this sentence from Moth Smoke, his first novel.

And for the thousand of others that are equally hilarious and just that tiny bit melancholic. The man is witty.

Second because he is a voice we desperately need today. And because every novel explores a different form of narration.

Moth Smoke, multiple points of view.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist, a one-sided dialogue.

How to Get Filthy Rich in Asia, a strange biographical help-book narrated at the 2nd person.

Exit West, a take of sci-fi, a bitter-sweet story of (albeit) modern emigration.

When I first picked The Reluctant Fundamentalist in a second-hand bookshop in London 2 years ago, I wasn't expecting falling in love with Mohsin Hamid that much. His essays, Discontent and Its Civilisations, are also very good. In them, he talks about the effect 9/11 and the 7/7 London bombings had on his life as a Muslim Pakistani immigrant.

Please read Mohsin Hamid, please identify with Changez, with Nadia, with Daru, just for a minute or two.

[deadpoetsmusings]

“..He asked me once if I thought the fires in our lives, the traumas, increased our fulfillment by setting up contrasts that illuminated more clearly our everyday joys; or perhaps I viewed them instead as tests that made us stronger by teaching us to endure; or did I believe, rather, that they simply amplified what we already were, in the end making the strong stronger, the weak weaker, the dangerous deadly?”

[quotespile]

You see, it is my passionately held belief that the right to possess property is at best a contingent one. When disparities become too great, a superior right, that to life, outweighs the right to property. Ergo, the very poor have the right to steal from the very rich.

Mohsin Hamid, Moth Smoke