Thursday, June 06, 2024

Five top thrillers about terrorism

Abir Mukherjee is the bestselling author of the award-winning Wyndham & Banerjee series of crime novels set in 1920s Colonial India. He is a two-time winner of the CWA Historical Dagger and has won the Wilbur Smith Award for Adventure Writing. His books have also been shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger and the HWA Gold Crown. His novels, A Rising Man and Smoke and Ashes were both selected as Waterstones Thriller of the Month. Smoke and Ashes was also chosen as one of The Times' Best Crime and Thriller novels since 1945.

Mukherjee's new novel is Hunted.

At the Waterstones blog the author tagged five favorite thrillers about terrorism, including:
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

An exploration of identity, belonging, and the clash of cultures in a post-9/11 world, The Reluctant Fundamentalist follows the journey of Changez, a young Pakistani man who moves to the USA in search of the American Dream but finds himself increasingly disillusioned with Western society in the wake of the September 11th attacks. What makes this book exceptional is its narrative structure, which takes the form of a conversation between Changez and an unnamed American stranger in a Lahore cafe. Through this intimate exchange, Hamid examines the complexities of cultural identity and the impact of geopolitical events on individual lives, inviting readers to question their own preconceptions and biases.
Read about another entry on the list.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist is among Ryan Lee Wong's ten best novels about Asian American politics, Maris Kreizman's top twenty-three short books, Colleen Kinder's ten books about chance encounters with strangers, Maris Kreizman's nineteen top short books and stories, Ian MacKenzie's ten top books about Americans abroad, Emily Temple's ten top contemporary novels by and about Muslims, Laila Lalami's eight top books about Muslim life for a nation that knows little about Islam, Porochista Khakpour's top ten novels about 9/11, Jimmy So's five best 9/11 novels, and Ahmede Hussain's five top books in recent South Asian literature.

The Page 69 Test: The Reluctant Fundamentalist.

--Marshal Zeringue