Mohsin Hamid
Mohsin Hamid (Urdu: ; born 23 July 1971) is a British
Pakistani novelist, writer and brand consultant. His novels are Moth
Mohsin Hamid
Smoke (2000), The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007), How to Get ﻣﺤﺴﻦ ﺣﺎﻣﺪ
Filthy Rich in Rising Asia (2013), and Exit West (2017).
Contents
Early life and education
Work
Personal life
List of works
Awards and honours
References Born 23 July 1971
Further references Lahore, Pakistan
External links Occupation Novelist
Nationality Pakistani
British
Early life and education Alma mater Princeton University
Harvard Law School
Born to family of Punjabi and Kashmiri descent,[2] Hamid spent part Period 2000–present
of his childhood in the United States, where he stayed from the age of Genre Literary fiction
3 to 9 while his father, a university professor, was enrolled in a PhD
program at Stanford University. He then moved with his family back Notable Moth Smoke
works The Reluctant
to Lahore, Pakistan, and attended the Lahore American School.[3]
Fundamentalist
At the age of 18, Hamid returned to the United States to continue his Exit West
education. He graduated summa cum laude with an A.B. from the Spouse Zahra
Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Children Dina
Princeton University in 1993 after completing an 127-page-long
senior thesis, titled "Sustainable Power: Integrated Resource Planning Website
[4]
in Pakistan", under the supervision of Robert H. Williams. While he mohsinhamid.com (http://mohsinha
was a student at Princeton, Hamid studied under Joyce Carol Oates mid.com)
and Toni Morrison. Hamid wrote the first draft of his first novel for a
fiction workshop taught by Morrison. He returned to Pakistan after college to continue working on it.[5]
Hamid then attended Harvard Law School, graduating in 1997.[6] Finding corporate law boring, he repaid his
student loans by working for several years as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company in New
York City. He was allowed to take three months off each year to write, and he used this time to complete his
first novel Moth Smoke.[7]
Work
Hamid moved to London in the summer of 2001, initially intending to stay only one year. Although he
frequently returned to Pakistan to write, he continued to live in London for eight years, becoming a dual
citizen of the United Kingdom in 2006.[8] In 2004 he joined the brand consultancy Wolff Olins, working only
three days a week so as to retain time to write.[9] He later served as managing director of Wolff Olins' London
office, and in 2015 was appointed the firm's first-ever Chief Storytelling Officer.[10]
Hamid's first novel, Moth Smoke, told the story of a marijuana-smoking ex-banker in post-nuclear-test Lahore
who falls in love with his best friend's wife and becomes a heroin addict. It was published in 2000, and
quickly became a cult hit in Pakistan and India. It was also a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award given to
the best first novel in the US, and was adapted for television in Pakistan and as an operetta in Italy.[11]
Moth Smoke had an innovative structure, using multiple voices, second person trial scenes, and essays on such
topics as the role of air-conditioning in the lives of its main characters. Pioneering a hip, contemporary
approach to English language South Asian fiction, it was considered by some critics to be "the most interesting
novel that came out of [its] generation of subcontinent (English) writing."[12] In the New York Review of
Books, Anita Desai noted:
One could not really continue to write, or read about, the slow seasonal changes, the rural
backwaters, gossipy courtyards, and traditional families in a world taken over by gun-running,
drug-trafficking, large-scale industrialism, commercial entrepreneurship, tourism, new money,
nightclubs, boutiques... Where was the Huxley, the Orwell, the Scott Fitzgerald, or even the Tom
Wolfe, Jay McInerney, or Brett Easton Ellis to record this new world? Mohsin Hamid's novel
Moth Smoke, set in Lahore, is one of the first pictures we have of that world.[13]
His second novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, is a "metafictional"[14] novel. It tells the story of a Pakistani
man who decides to leave his high-flying life in America after a failed love affair and the terrorist attacks of
9/11. It was published in 2007 and became a million-copy international best seller, reaching No.4 on the New
York Times Best Seller list.[15][16] The novel was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, won several awards
including the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and the Asian American Literary Award, and was translated into
over 25 languages. The Guardian selected it as one of the books that defined the decade.[17]
Like Moth Smoke, The Reluctant Fundamentalist was formally experimental. The novel used the unusual
device of a dramatic monologue in which the Pakistani protagonist continually addresses an American listener
who is never heard from directly. (Hamid has said The Fall by Albert Camus served as his model.[18][19])
According to one commentator, because of this technique:
maybe we the readers are the ones who jump to conclusions; maybe the book is intended as a
Rorschach to reflect back our unconscious assumptions. In our not knowing lies the novel's
suspense... Hamid literally leaves us at the end in a kind of alley, the story suddenly suspended;
it's even possible that some act of violence might occur. But more likely, we are left holding the
bag of conflicting worldviews. We're left to ponder the symbolism of Changez having been
caught up in the game of symbolism—a game we ourselves have been known to play.[20]
In an interview in May 2007, Hamid said of the brevity of The Reluctant Fundamentalist: "I'd rather people
read my book twice than only half-way through."[21]
His third novel, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, was excerpted by The New Yorker in their 24
September 2012 issue and by Granta in their Spring 2013 issue, and was released in March 2013 by
Riverhead Books.[22][23] As with his previous books, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia bends
conventions of both genre and form. Narrated in the second person, it tells the story of the protagonist's
("your") journey from impoverished rural boy to tycoon in an unnamed contemporary city in "rising Asia,"
and of his pursuit of the nameless "pretty girl" whose path continually crosses but never quite converges with
his. Stealing its shape from the self-help books devoured by ambitious youths all over "rising Asia," the novel
is playful but also quite profound in its portrayal of the thirst for ambition and love in a time of shattering
economic and social upheaval. In her New York Times review of the novel, Michiko Kakutani called it "deeply
moving," writing that How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia "reaffirms [Hamid's] place as one of his
generation's most inventive and gifted writers."[24]
Hamid has also written on politics, art, literature, travel, and other topics, most recently on Pakistan's internal
division and extremism in an op-ed for the New York Times.[25] His journalism, essays, and stories have
appeared in TIME, The Guardian, Dawn,[26] The New York Times, The Washington Post,[27] The
International Herald Tribune,[28] the Paris Review, and other publications. In 2013 he was named one of the
world's 100 Leading Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy magazine.
Hamid's most recent novel, Exit West, is about a young couple, Nadia and Saeed, and their relationship in a
time where the world is taken by storm by migrants. It was shortlisted for the 2017 Booker prize.
Personal life
Hamid moved to Lahore in 2009 with his wife Zahra and their daughter Dina. He now divides his time
between Pakistan and abroad, living between Lahore, New York, London, and Mediterranean countries
including Italy and Greece. Hamid has described himself as a "mongrel"[29] and has said of his own writing
that "a novel can often be a divided man’s conversation with himself."[30]
List of works
Moth Smoke (2000) ISBN 0-374-21354-2
The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) ISBN 0-241-14365-9
How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia (2013) ISBN 978-1-59448-729-3
Discontent and Its Civilisations: Despatches from Lahore, New York & London (2014)
ISBN 978-0-241-14630-9
Exit West (2017) ISBN 978-0-241-97907-5
Awards and honours
The following list contains notable awards and honours awarded to Mohsin Hamid.
2000 The New York Times Notable Book of the Year: Moth Smoke
2001 Betty Trask Award: Moth Smoke
2001 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award (shortlist): Moth Smoke
2007 Booker Prize (shortlist): The Reluctant Fundamentalist
2007 New York Times Notable Book of the Year: The Reluctant Fundamentalist
2008 Ambassador Book Award of the English Speaking Union: The Reluctant Fundamentalist
2008 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award:[31] The Reluctant Fundamentalist
2008 Arts Council England Decibel Award (shortlist): The Reluctant Fundamentalist
2008 Asian American Literary Award: The Reluctant Fundamentalist
2008 Australia-Asia Literary Award (shortlist): The Reluctant Fundamentalist
2008 Commonwealth Writers Prize (Eurasia Region, Best Book) (shortlist): The Reluctant
Fundamentalist
2008 Index on Censorship T R Fyvel Award (shortlist): The Reluctant Fundamentalist
2008 James Tait Black Memorial Prize (for fiction) (shortlist): The Reluctant Fundamentalist
2008 South Bank Show Annual Award for Literature: The Reluctant Fundamentalist
2009 International Dublin Literary Award (shortlist): The Reluctant Fundamentalist
2009 Premio Speciale Dal Testo Allo Schermo: The Reluctant Fundamentalist
2013 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature (shortlist): How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia[32]
2013 Foreign Policy magazine's 100 Leading Global Thinkers[33]
2014 Tiziano Terzani International Literary Prize: How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia[34]
2014 International Literature Award (shortlist): How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia[35]
2017 Kirkus Prize (shortlist): Exit West
2017 Booker Prize (shortlist): Exit West
2017 Neustadt Prize (shortlist)
2017 New York Times Best Book of the Year: Exit West
2017 St. Francis College Literary Prize (shortlist): Exit West
2018 British Science Fiction Association Award (shortlist): Exit West
2018 Dayton Literary Peace Prize (shortlist): Exit West
2018 Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
2018 LA Times Book Prize (winner): Exit West
2018 National Book Critics Circle Award (shortlist): Exit West
2018 Pakistan Sitara-i-Imtiaz
2018 Rathbones Folio Prize (shortlist): Exit West
References
1. "Mohsin Hamid" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01s0dlg). Front Row. 24 April 2013. BBC
Radio 4. Retrieved 18 January 2014.
2. Hamid, Mohsin (15 August 2007). "After 60 Years, Will Pakistan Be Reborn?" (https://www.nyti
mes.com/2007/08/15/opinion/15hamid.html). The New York Times. Retrieved 7 November
2019.
3. Perlez, Jane (12 October 2007). "Mohsin Hamid: A Muslim novelist's eye on U.S. and Europe"
(https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/12/world/americas/12iht-profile.4.7870760.html). The New
York Times. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
4. Hamid, Mohsin (1993). "Sustainable Power: Integrated Resource Planning in Pakistan" (http://d
ataspace.princeton.edu/jspui/handle/88435/dsp01bg257f81d).
5. Kinson, Sarah (6 June 2008). "Why I write: Mohsin Hamid" (https://www.theguardian.com/book
s/2008/jun/06/whyiwrite). The Guardian. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
6. Rice, Lewis (18 July 2000). "A Novel Idea" (https://web.archive.org/web/20181114100427/http
s://today.law.harvard.edu/book-review/novel-idea/). Harvard Law Bulletin. Archived from the
original (https://today.law.harvard.edu/book-review/novel-idea/) on 14 November 2018.
Retrieved 13 November 2018.
7. Thomas Jr., Landon (23 April 2001). "Akhil and Mohsin Get Paid: Moonlighting Salomon Smith
Barney, McKinsey Guys Write Novels" (https://observer.com/2001/04/akhil-and-mohsin-get-pai
d-moonlighting-salomon-smith-barney-mckinsey-guys-write-novels/). Observer. Retrieved
13 November 2018.
8. Hamid, Mohsin (9 September 2007). "Mohsin Hamid on becoming a UK citizen" (https://www.th
eguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/sep/10/comment.immigration). The Guardian. Retrieved
13 November 2018.
9. "Profile – Mohsin Hamid" (https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/8-november-2007/profile-moh
sin-hamid/). Design Week. 8 November 2007. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
10. Grothaus, Michael (1 May 2015). "Why Companies Need Novelists" (https://www.fastcompany.
com/3045216/why-companies-need-novelists). Fast Company. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
11. "Anisfield-Wolf Award citation" (https://web.archive.org/web/20090208013119/http://anisfield-w
olf.org/Winners/Biography.aspx?id=942). Archived from the original (http://www.anisfield-wolf.or
g/Winners/Biography.aspx?id=942) on 8 February 2009. Retrieved 2 January 2010.
12. Basu, Shrabani (7 October 2007). "The Crescent and the Pen," (http://www.telegraphindia.com/
1071007/asp/7days/story_8405194.asp) The Telegraph (Calcutta)
13. Desai, Anita (21 December 2000). "Passion in Lahore" (http://www.nybooks.com/articles/article
-preview?article_id=13943) New York Review of Books
14. Madiou, Mohamed Salah Eddine. "Mohsin Hamid Engages the World in The Reluctant
Fundamentalist: 'An Island on an Island,’ Worlds in Miniature and 'Fiction' in the Making". Arab
Studies Quarterly, vol. 41, no. 4, 2019, pp. 271–297. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/10.13169/arabstudquar.41.4.0271.
15. "Taking a hermit to a party and letting him dance" (https://archive.today/20130721085533/http://
x.dawn.com/2012/08/28/exclusive-taking-a-hermit-to-a-party-and-letting-him-dance) Dawn
16. Best Sellers, Hardcover Fiction (https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/29/books/bestseller/0429be
sthardfiction.html?_r=1), The New York Times, 29 April 2007.
17. Guardian Books of the Noughties (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/dec/05/books-of-th
e-noughties)
18. Freeman, John (30 March 2007). "Critical Outakes: Mohsin Hamid on Camus, Immigration, and
Love" (http://bookcriticscircle.blogspot.com/2007/03/critical-outakes-mohsin-hamid-on-camus.h
tml), Critical Mass.
19. Solomon, Deborah (15 April 2007). "The Stranger - Questions for Mohsin Hamid" (https://www.
nytimes.com/2007/04/15/magazine/15wwlnQ4.t.html). The New York Times. Retrieved
14 November 2018.
20. Kerr, Sarah (11 October 2007). "In the Terror House of Mirrors" (http://www.nybooks.com/article
s/article-preview?article_id=20670). New York Review of Books.
21. Reddy, Sheela (14 May 2007). "Mohsin Hamid - Pakistani writer Mohsin Hamid gets an
enthusiastic welcome on his first visit to India" (https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/m
ohsin-hamid/234608). Outlook India. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
22. Hamid, Mohsin (24 September 2012). "The Third-Born" (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/
2012/09/24/the-third-born). The New Yorker. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
23. Granta Issue 122: Betrayal (http://www.granta.com/Archive/122) Spring 2013
24. Kakutani, Michiko (21 February 2013). "Love and Ambition in a Cruel New World" (https://www.
nytimes.com/2013/02/22/books/how-to-get-filthy-rich-in-rising-asia-by-mohsin-hamid.html). The
New York Times. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
25. Hamid, Mohsin (21 February 2013). "To Fight India, We Fought Ourselves" (https://www.nytime
s.com/2013/02/22/opinion/pakistani-militants-the-enemies-of-peace-the-internal-enemies-of-pa
kistani-peace.html). The New York Times. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
26. "Paying for Pakistan" (http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-n
ewspaper/editorial/Paying-for-Pakistan-750) Dawn 7 May 2007
27. Hamid, Mohsin (22 July 2007). "Why Do They Hate Us?" (https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2007/07/20/AR2007072001806.html). The Washington Post. Retrieved
13 November 2018.
28. "Flailing, But Not Yet Failing" (https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B06E4D6173F
F93BA25750C0A96F9C8B63&sec=&spon=) The International Herald Tribune 18 March 2009
29. "The Pathos of Exile" (http://content.time.com/time/asia/2003/journey/Pakistan_lahore.html).
TIME. 18 August 2003.
30. "My Reluctant Fundamentalist" (http://www.powells.com/essays/mohsin.html) Archived (https://
web.archive.org/web/20090408050733/http://www.powells.com/essays/mohsin.html) 8 April
2009 at the Wayback Machine Powells Original Essays
31. anisfield-wolf.org
32. Ashlin Mathew (22 November 2013). "Three Indians in race for DSC prize for South Asian
Literature 2014" (http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/indian-writers-dsc-prize-south-asian-literature
-2014-anand-benyamin-cyrus-mistry/1/325976.html). India Today. Retrieved 22 November
2013.
33. "Leading Global Thinkers of 2013" (https://foreignpolicy.com/2013_global_thinkers/public/hami
d) Foreign Policy December 2013
34. " "Tiziano Terzani Prize" Press Release" (https://web.archive.org/web/20140728085717/http://w
ww.vicinolontano.it/premio-terzani/edizione-2014/tiziano-terzani-prize-press-release-english/).
Archived from the original (http://www.vicinolontano.it/premio-terzani/edizione-2014/tiziano-terz
ani-prize-press-release-english/) on 28 July 2014. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
35. Mankani, Mahjabeen (20 June 2014). "Mohsin Hamid's novel shortlisted for International
Literary Award" (https://www.dawn.com/news/1114024/mohsin-hamids-novel-shortlisted-for-int
ernational-literary-award). Dawn. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
Further references
article (http://www.spaghettitaliani.com/Articoli/ArticoloAS.htm) (in Italian). Accessed 4 March
2007
Houpt, S.: "Novelist by Night", The Globe and Mail, 1 April 2000
Patel, V.: "A Call to Arms for Pakistan", Newsweek, 24 July 2000
External links
Official
Mohsin Hamid's website (http://www.mohsinhamid.com)
Mohsin Hamid at Granta (http://www.granta.com/Contributors/Mohsin-Hamid)
Mohsin Hamid at Holtzbrinck (http://www.holtzbrinckpublishers.com/academic/Book/BookDispl
ay.asp?BookKey=371632)
Mohsin Hamid at Penguin (http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Author/AuthorPage/0,,0_1000071818,0
0.html?sym=BIO)
Interviews
Mohsin Hamid in EGO Magazine (http://www.egothemag.com/archives/2007/04/the_reluctant_
f.htm)
Jabberwock: A long conversation with Mohsin Hamid (http://jaiarjun.blogspot.com/2007/05/con
versation-with-mohsin-hamid.html)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mohsin_Hamid&oldid=994193883"
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