OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS

Mohsin Hamid vanquished literary giants to win his place on the Booker prize longlist. He tells Decca Aitkenhead how his novel was shaped by 9/11 and Martin Luther King
'As a writer, I am constantly aware that I take my life in my hands with everything I do and say' ... Mohsin Hamid.

Author pic by Eamonn McCabe for the Guardian.

Had September 11 2001 been just another ordinary day, Mohsin Hamid's second novel would have turned out very differently. Hamid began working on it in 2000, as a parable about a young Pakistani man uneasy with corporate America. But when his literary agent read the first draft, he found the protagonist unconvincing. Why on earth would a secular, westernised, successful Muslim feel any hostility towards the US?

The first paragraph of an interesting Man Booker Prize background story from the Weekend Guardian.

Use this link to read the full story.