When Mohsin Hamid was a young boy, he and his friends would often live outside of reality while playing games of make-believe.
“Multiple children enter this imaginative space together, pretending they are pirates or astronauts,” he says. “To me, my novels are very much like that — they are invitations to readers to enter into a magical space.”
As an acclaimed novelist, Hamid's imagination is now more sophisticated. In his first three novels, he enlisted his reader to participate in the pretence.
His 2000 debut, Moth Smoke, casts the audience as judge. In The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007), his garrulous Pakistani protagonist routinely interrupts his dramatic monologue to speak directly to us, his American listener. And, in How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia (2013), which takes the form of a rags-to-riches self-help manual, the reader is the main character.
Recently, however, Hamid has taken more creative risks and enlarged that “magical space”. His last novel Exit West, which was shortlisted for the 2017 Booker Prize, follows Saeed and Nadia as they flee a war-torn city and search for sanctuary through a series of secret doors.
His enthralling new novel The Last White Man is a shrewd update of Franz Kafka’s 1915 novel The Metamorphosis. Anders wakes up one morning to find his skin has turned dark. While he waits for an “undoing”, he notices more and more people undergoing the same transformation and civil unrest erupting.
Speaking to The National from New York, Hamid explains he has become more interested in bending reality in his novels. “On the one hand, I believe that fiction is not real,” he says. “It’s this imagined experience co-created by readers and writers. The words from one are animated in the imagination of the other.
“But I think to a very large extent what we call reality is also not real. The potency of this unreal environment of fiction and the way that it can actually help us understand the unreal environment of what we call reality is what I play with.”
The Last White Man was a long time in the making. Hamid came up with the idea for it a year before the pandemic hit. But its real origins go even further back.
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“I was thinking about my own experience after 9/11,” he says. “As a university-educated person who had a well-paying job and lived in large cosmopolitan cities like New York and London, I thought I had a kind of partial membership of this dominant group called whiteness.
“Then suddenly I became a member of this suspect class — being pulled out of lines in airports and stopped for hours at immigration, seeing people uncomfortable around me when I showed up on the subway or tube with my backpack. It was jarring, and initially I felt this profound sense of loss.
“That led to a cascade of thinking about people who feel their British-ness or their Muslim-ness or other elements of their identity are under threat of being taken away, and how it feels to lose those things — but also how it gives a possibility to reflect on something new.”
Hamid also derived inspiration from an unlikely source.
“There is a Sufi idea, which is that there are two different directions one takes towards enlightenment," he says. "One is that you look inside yourself and find the universe. The other, more transgressive strand says: look at the universe and find yourself reflected there. And, I think this sort of looking outside yourself and then discovering yourself in the process was something that appealed to me.
“I wanted to write a book about characters who weren’t, on the surface, me. I wanted to imagine people who were younger, older, and of a different racial background.”
Hamid describes himself as “a mongrelised, hybridised person”. He was born in Lahore, Pakistan, but has spent large parts of his life in the UK and the US. He once said he feels like “a half-outsider” in these places. Is this still the case?
“There’s still a little bit of land-sickness,” he says. “Like when you get off a ship you’ve been on for a long time, the land feels like it’s swaying.
“I can never quite slip into imagining that I can just see things from a British, American or Pakistani perspective. Not that those perspectives actually exist. I guess I’m always seeing the world from two or three different gazes at the same time.”
After years away, Hamid moved back to Lahore in 2009. Since then, he has written several illuminating, and at times excoriating, state-of-the-nation essays highlighting Pakistan’s lack of progress.
For Hamid, Pakistan continues to suffer from “profound pathologies”. He is still concerned about the country but is also worried about other places where he believes there are similar pathologies at work.
“You have this search for the strong man, the breakdown of the ability to come to democratic consensus, the inability of different political parties to work together,” he says.
“There is a sense of failure many people are feeling about their countries. It lends itself to a kind of nostalgic politics, which is often quite monstrous.
“People imagine that in America there is something unique going on with the rise of xenophobia and nativism. But there are similar currents in Pakistani politics, not to mention British, Turkish, Indian, Brazilian and Russian politics.
“The rise of these figures that are talking about the true people, the real citizen. A kind of sorting mechanism where we decide who is like us, and how we become quite confrontational to those who are not like us. This is personally troubling. A world of fetishised tribal purities is not a world that is particularly hospitable to people like me.
“And so,” he says, “I wanted to write a book that dealt with that.”
Mohsin Hamid’s The Last White Man was released on Tuesday in the US and will be out on August 11 in the UK.
Book covers for 2022 International Booker Prize — in pictures
Turkish Ladies
Various artists, Sony Music Turkey
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Jewel of the Expo 2020
252 projectors installed on Al Wasl dome
13.6km of steel used in the structure that makes it equal in length to 16 Burj Khalifas
550 tonnes of moulded steel were raised last year to cap the dome
724,000 cubic metres is the space it encloses
Stands taller than the leaning tower of Pisa
Steel trellis dome is one of the largest single structures on site
The size of 16 tennis courts and weighs as much as 500 elephants
Al Wasl means connection in Arabic
World’s largest 360-degree projection surface
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
TOURNAMENT INFO
Fixtures
Sunday January 5 - Oman v UAE
Monday January 6 - UAE v Namibia
Wednesday January 8 - Oman v Namibia
Thursday January 9 - Oman v UAE
Saturday January 11 - UAE v Namibia
Sunday January 12 – Oman v Namibia
UAE squad
Ahmed Raza (captain), Rohan Mustafa, Mohammed Usman, CP Rizwan, Waheed Ahmed, Zawar Farid, Darius D’Silva, Karthik Meiyappan, Jonathan Figy, Vriitya Aravind, Zahoor Khan, Junaid Siddique, Basil Hameed, Chirag Suri
Explainer: Tanween Design Programme
Non-profit arts studio Tashkeel launched this annual initiative with the intention of supporting budding designers in the UAE. This year, three talents were chosen from hundreds of applicants to be a part of the sixth creative development programme. These are architect Abdulla Al Mulla, interior designer Lana El Samman and graphic designer Yara Habib.
The trio have been guided by experts from the industry over the course of nine months, as they developed their own products that merge their unique styles with traditional elements of Emirati design. This includes laboratory sessions, experimental and collaborative practice, investigation of new business models and evaluation.
It is led by British contemporary design project specialist Helen Voce and mentor Kevin Badni, and offers participants access to experts from across the world, including the likes of UK designer Gareth Neal and multidisciplinary designer and entrepreneur, Sheikh Salem Al Qassimi.
The final pieces are being revealed in a worldwide limited-edition release on the first day of Downtown Designs at Dubai Design Week 2019. Tashkeel will be at stand E31 at the exhibition.
Lisa Ball-Lechgar, deputy director of Tashkeel, said: “The diversity and calibre of the applicants this year … is reflective of the dynamic change that the UAE art and design industry is witnessing, with young creators resolute in making their bold design ideas a reality.”
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal / Ubisoft Toronto
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platforms: Playstation 4, Xbox One, Windows
Release Date: April 10
GAC GS8 Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh149,900
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
Ireland (15-1):
Ireland (15-1): Rob Kearney; Keith Earls, Chris Farrell, Bundee Aki, Jacob Stockdale; Jonathan Sexton, Conor Murray; Jack Conan, Sean O'Brien, Peter O'Mahony; James Ryan, Quinn Roux; Tadhg Furlong, Rory Best (capt), Cian Healy
Replacements: Sean Cronin, Dave Kilcoyne, Andrew Porter, Ultan Dillane, Josh van der Flier, John Cooney, Joey Carbery, Jordan Larmour
Coach: Joe Schmidt (NZL)
THE%20JERSEYS
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How Islam's view of posthumous transplant surgery changed
Transplants from the deceased have been carried out in hospitals across the globe for decades, but in some countries in the Middle East, including the UAE, the practise was banned until relatively recently.
Opinion has been divided as to whether organ donations from a deceased person is permissible in Islam.
The body is viewed as sacred, during and after death, thus prohibiting cremation and tattoos.
One school of thought viewed the removal of organs after death as equally impermissible.
That view has largely changed, and among scholars and indeed many in society, to be seen as permissible to save another life.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
From Zero
Artist: Linkin Park
Label: Warner Records
Number of tracks: 11
Rating: 4/5
MATCH INFO
Manchester United 1 (Greenwood 77')
Everton 1 (Lindelof 36' og)
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
Score
Third Test, Day 2
New Zealand 274
Pakistan 139-3 (61 ov)
Pakistan trail by 135 runs with 7 wickets remaining in the innings
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Tax authority targets shisha levy evasion
The Federal Tax Authority will track shisha imports with electronic markers to protect customers and ensure levies have been paid.
Khalid Ali Al Bustani, director of the tax authority, on Sunday said the move is to "prevent tax evasion and support the authority’s tax collection efforts".
The scheme’s first phase, which came into effect on 1st January, 2019, covers all types of imported and domestically produced and distributed cigarettes. As of May 1, importing any type of cigarettes without the digital marks will be prohibited.
He said the latest phase will see imported and locally produced shisha tobacco tracked by the final quarter of this year.
"The FTA also maintains ongoing communication with concerned companies, to help them adapt their systems to meet our requirements and coordinate between all parties involved," he said.
As with cigarettes, shisha was hit with a 100 per cent tax in October 2017, though manufacturers and cafes absorbed some of the costs to prevent prices doubling.
Zayed Sustainability Prize
The%20Last%20White%20Man
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