The Reluctant Fundamentalist: Mohsin Hamid: 68 (Penguin Essentials, 68)

Gripping... remains taut until the final pages...an elegant and sharp indictment of the clouds of suspicion that now shroud our world (Observer)

A quietly told, cleverly constructed fable of infatuation and disenchantment with America, set on the treacherous faultlines of current east/west relations, and finely tuned to the ironies of mutual - but especially American - prejudice and misrepresentation...increasingly tense...genuinely provocative...intelligent, highly engaging (Guardian)

Elegant, provocative . . . beautifully measured prose . . . a delicate meditation on the nature of perception and prejudice (Daily Mail)

Masterful . . . A multi-layered and thoroughly gripping book, which works as a poignant love story, a powerful dissection of how US imperialist machinations have turned so many people against the world's superpower - and as a thriller that subtly ratchets up the nerve-jangling tension towards an explosive ending (Metro)

The Reluctant Fundamentalist is an important book (Evening Standard)

A fantastic piece of work, superbly considered and controlled, with a lovely stillness and wisdom at its heart (The Times)

Beautifully written (Philip Pullman)

A profoundly contemporary story about civil wars, unstable countries and refugees pouring to the cities of the West... beautifully written, with the ghost of Camus hovering at the edge of the frame (New Statesman)