ISLAMABAD: Two of Pakistani authors have made it to the BBC’s list of ‘100 Novels that Shaped Our World.’
The list which features authors from across the globe includes Kamila Shamsie and Mohsin Hamid.
Shamsie’s ‘Home Fire’ made the list under the category ‘Politics, Power, and Protest.’ The author’s seventh novel follows the lives of siblings whose connection to home, faith and each other undergoes trials and tribulations played to the backdrop of political turmoil and corruption. Home Fire is in the company of ‘The Color Purple’ by Alice Walker, ‘A Thousand Splendid Sons’ by Khaled Hosseini and Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mocking Bird.’
Hamid’s ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’ is housed under Crime & Conflict amid such novels as ‘The Talented Mr.Ripley by Patricia Highsmith,’ ‘The Quiet American’ by Graham Greene and ‘Ice Candy Man’ by Bapsi Sidhwa.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist is narrated by a Pakistani man in Lahore speaking to an American, possibly a CIA agent, about how they both ended up in conversation and how he ended up teetering or perhaps crossing the lines into jihadism. The book was also adapted into a film starring British-Pakistani actor Riz Ahmed.
The list was curated by a diverse panel including editors, authors and literary experts like Times Literary Supplement editor Stig Abell, broadcaster Mariella Frostrup, authors Juno Dawson, Kit de Waal and Alexander McCall Smith, and Bradford Festival Literary Director Syima Aslam.