Discontent and Its Civilizations

'When I was younger, I thought of being a migrant and being foreign as things that made me different, an outsider. Now I think these experiences are increasingly universal…'

Since the year 2000, novelist Mohsin Hamid has been writing about what it means to be an individual in an increasingly fragmented world. In the pieces gathered here, he gives us a portrait of a man coming to terms with not only his place in that world but also how its convulsions and changes shape so many of us—for good and ill. Whether writing of his home life, about being a migrant or of today's geopolitical fault lines, Hamid gives us his deeply personal take on life at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

'As simple, immediate and moving as any of Hamid's fiction.' —Financial Times

'Excellent. Lucid, informative and drily funny… Hamid is one of the most perceptive commentators on contemporary global politics.' —Sunday Times

'Reasonable, intelligent, humble. Just the sort of commentator the world could do with right now.' —Independent

''Accessible, wise and beautifully clear.' —Metro

'As a Pakistani who spent his childhood in the United States and his adult life in London, Hamid has a unique perspective on the civilization clash which has defined this era. These elegantly crafted essays confront everything from the future of Pakistan and the death of Osama bin Laden to fatherhood and falling in love.' —Prospect