Ahmede Hussain's Book Recommendations (Updated for 2026)

1

The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Mohsin Hamid

3.9

At a cafe table in Lahore, a bearded Pakistani man converses with an uneasy American stranger. As dusk deepens to night, he begins the tale that has brought them to this fateful encounter...

Changez is living an immigrant's dream of America. At the top of his class at Princeton, he is snapped up by an elite valuation firm. He thrives on the energy of New York, and his budding romance with elegant,

Recommended by Ahmede Hussain, Amy Waldman, and Daniyal Mueenuddin.

Ahmede Hussain

This is an amazing book, and it’s a shame that it didn’t win the Man Booker Prize in 2007 – in my opinion it was the best of the bunch. I think it’s going to become a modern classic in five or 10 years’ time, if it’s not already regarded as one. This novel speaks for so many peoples’ experiences in the aftermath of 9/11. The prose is very tight and the title is also very clever. [source]

Amy Waldman

You’re right – the protagonist has a completely different profile from the humble one in Harbor. Changez is from a prestigious Pakistani family, but one without a lot of money. He comes to the United States to attend Princeton on a scholarship and then is recruited into the corporate world. The whole novel is a monologue. This character, in a café in Lahore, is talking to an unidentified American, telling his story about the life he led in the United States. How he was enamoured of New York, yet smiled as the Towers fell and grew even more embittered toward America in the wake of the attacks. The structure is original and well executed. [source]

Daniyal Mueenuddin

Well, it’s an odd kind of book. I think what’s especially useful about it is the way in which it describes the transformation in this man’s thinking. The protagonist is somebody who had been living in New York and been a banker and he gradually turns into, as the title says, a reluctant fundamentalist. This is something that I have seen among my friends in Pakistan. People who I have always thought of as very, very Westernised. They went to school abroad and certainly didn’t have the habits of religious types. But they are increasingly angry with the West and sympathetic to an anti-Western agenda and propaganda and very receptive to all kind of thoughts. These are really rational people who will now tell me straight out that September 11 was actually perpetrated by the Israelis and had nothing to do with Al-Qaeda. To me their theories seem absolutely loony and yet these guys have come out with something radically different. [source]

Cover unavailable

2

The New Anthem: The Subcontinent in Its Own Words

a. Hussain

4.2

South Asia first found its English voice - in literature and in song - in the nineteenth century. It changed and morphed over two hundred years so that it now boasts of as many registers as there are languages and dialects within its geographical frontiers. From Mohsin Hamid, Kamila Shamsie and Raj Kamal Jha to Amit Choudhuri, Altaf Tyrewala, Padma Viswanathan and Tabish Khair, this book anthologi

Recommended by Ahmede Hussain.

Ahmede Hussain

These stories are written by 22 authors of South Asian origin. The New Anthem is an attempt to reinterpret the turbulent history of the region at both an individual and a national level. I selected the works of contemporary authors, most of whom are under the age of 40, who have changed the landscape of South Asian writing. There were many to choose from. We are coming out of the closet, so to speak, by writing about the conflict between our religious and cultural identity, and the social taboos that are being broken – or those taboos that remain standing like tall buildings. [source]

3

The Glass Palace

Amitav Ghosh

4.1

Set in Burma during the British invasion of 1885, this masterly novel by Amitav Ghosh tells the story of Rajkumar, a poor boy lifted on the tides of political and social chaos, who goes on to create an empire in the Burmese teak forest. When soldiers force the royal family out of the Glass Palace and into exile, Rajkumar befriends Dolly, a young woman in the court of the Burmese Queen, whose love

Recommended by Ahmede Hussain.

Ahmede Hussain

What I really liked about this novel is the way it describes an individual’s place in history. It’s not so much that Ghosh makes a judgement on whether we are agents or victims of history, but he explores the different ways in which individuals react to particular incidents, and how some manage to overcome adversity. The Glass Palace follows the life of the last Burmese king and his family. It begins shortly before the king was deposed and sent into exile by the British army. [source]

Cover unavailable

4

English, August: An Indian Story

Upamanyu Chatterjee, Akhil Sharma

4.0

Recommended by Ahmede Hussain.

Ahmede Hussain

This is one of the first books I read in English that was written by an Indian. What amazed me at the time was the sarcasm within it, which is very strong. The novel is about a young trainee civil servant called Agastya Sen who is posted to Madna, in India’s hinterland. Agastya had grown up in the cosmopolitan city of Delhi and he finds it very difficult to cope with his new environment. He lacks enthusiasm for a life in administration, and he is more interested in smoking marijuana and having fun. The young man faces an existential crisis, which is the focus of the book. It’s very funny, and very convincing too – the author was himself a member of the Indian Administrative Service for many years. [source]

5

Seasonal Adjustments

Adib Khan

4.6

Iqbal Chaudhary is 40ish. His Australian marriage has collapsed and he feels a compulsive need to go back to Bangladesh, the country he left 18 years earlier. The reception from his family is mixed, making him face the critical questions about his own cultural fragmentation and sense of belonging.

Recommended by Ahmede Hussain.

Ahmede Hussain

This was the first time that a book written by a Bangladeshi in English won the Commonwealth Writers Prize. It takes up an interesting theme – what if, when returning to your homeland, you find it changed and unfamiliar? The main character has spent almost 20 years in Australia, and when he returns to Bangladesh to visit his family he discovers that there are certain things in Bangladeshi society which bother him. The poverty that he sees really hurts him, and he finds it difficult to make his daughter understand certain norms and values. On top of all that, his marriage to a Catholic Australian woman has broken down, and his family in Bangladesh are unsupportive. He tries to cope with all these changes going on around him. It’s sometimes very funny, but also frequently sad. [source]