The Reluctant Fundamentalist traces the life and love of Changez, an idealistic young Muslim man who leaves Pakistan to pursue his education in the US. On graduation from Princeton, Changez is recruited to a top job on Wall Street, falls in love with an American woman, Erica, and hopes to achieve a position of status in elite Manhattan society. But post-9/11 he finds himself regarded with suspicion by his fellow New Yorkers and his budding relationship with Erica is overshadowed by her personal demons, as well as his own growing paranoia and resentment at the country he has made home.
Mohsin Hamid was born in 1971 in Pakistan, where he grew up. He studied at Princeton and Harvard Law School, worked as a management consultant in New York and now lives in London. His first novel, Moth Smoke (2000, Granta) was a New York Times Notable Book, won the Betty Trask First Book Award and was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for best first novel in America. Mohsin has written journalism for TIME, New York Times, Guardian, Independent and New Statesman.This synopsis if from the website http://www.themanbookerprize.com/prize/archive.
Read an interesting review of the book on http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/books/review/Olsson.t.html?_r=1
The reluctant fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid (Penguin 2007) is Alison's book - 2148.
