THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST, by Mohsin Hamid

This small book is told as a monologue to a western stranger by a Pakistani man, once a Wall Street darling, but post 9/11 an educator/protester in his native Lahore. Seated at a restaurant at the edge of an old market, Changez tells this stranger his life story, and how western education and money and position beguiled him, and how the 9/11 tragedy gradually sent him home. And what he does once home. And then he walks the American man back to his hotel. The last page is...you figure it out. My friend Lea is polling readers: what do you think happened next? You tell me, and I'll let her know the count. It's a 5+ and it'd be great for a book discussion group.

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