Red Birds

Mohammed Hanif

Summary

An intelligent, dark, and provocative satire of politics and society for fans of vivid, voice-driven, and often darkly humorous international writing like that of Aravind Adiga, Salman Rushdie, Gary Shteyngart, and Sayed Kashua.

Red Birds received early praise received from Pankaj Mishra, who picked it as one of the best books of 2018 for the Guardian, calling it "a fresh marvel." Hanif's work also garnered praise from John le Carré, Mark Haddon, and Mohsin Hamid and his writing writing has been compared to that of Salman Rushdie, Joseph Heller, and Raymond Chandler.

Bloomsbury UK will publish their edition of Red Birds this October.

Hanif is a regularly contributing opinion writer for the New York Times and was the subject of a 2016 profile in The New Yorker.

Splitting his time between Berlin and Karachi, Hanif is very active in the arts communities in the US, Europe and South Asia. He has written the libretto for an opera called Bhutto, commissioned by the Lyric Theater in Illinois for premiere with the Pittsburgh Opera in 2019. He has also written for the stage and screen, including a BBC radio play, What Now, Now That We Are Dead?

Hanif's debut novel, A Case of Exploding Mangoes (Knopf, 2008) was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Novel. His second novel, Our Lady of Alice Bhatti, was shortlisted for the Wellcome Trust Book Prize and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature.

Hanif's previously novels were widely and positively reviewed by The New York Times, The Guardian, the Washington Post, Financial Times, and the New Republic and more. We expect the same review coverage for Red Birds.

Available since: 05/14/2019.

Humor

2 Comments

24symbols EN

Say hi to Major Ellie, a US pilot whose plane crashes in the desert and who finds shelter in the refugee camp he should have bombed. This awkward beginning already hints at the dark cynicism that sets the tone for RED BIRDS, a sharp-witted, sarcastic criticism of US military interventions in the Middle East.

Told from alternating perspectives, the observations are utterly comic until the brutal truth hits you and the laughter gets stuck in your throat. Add a good dose of absurdity and you’ll find yourself right in the middle of a post war zone where the missing are haunting the living and no-one can be sure to trust in what they see. Thankfully there’s a philosophical dog whose analysis of the situation puts things into perspective. Discover more book recommendations on https://www.24symbols.com/24stories/en/the-best-books-of-the-moment/
24symbols EN

This book was featured as one of the best books of the moment. Have a look at our Magazine to discover our best books of the moment, a handpicked and periodically updated selection of the books you simply cannot miss: https://www.24symbols.com/24stories/en/the-best-books-of-the-moment/

About the author

Mohammed Hanif

Mohammed Hanif was born in Okara, Pakistan. He graduated from the Pakistan Air Force Academy as Pilot Officer but subsequently left to pursue a career in journalism. His first novel, A Case of...

Other books that might interest you

The Awe Factor - How a Little...

Allen Klein

Bestselling author and Mr. Jollytologist Allen Klein's latest book will helps readers escape the everyday ruts of our lives and help them open their eyes and find the awe around them.

Show book

Love and Friendship

Jane Austen

Austen's early novel, now in this amazing audiobook version.
This book is the basis for Whit Stillman's feature film Love and Friendship starring Kate Beckinsale and Chloe Sevigny.
An Author's Republic audio production.

Show book

Choice Spirits

W. Jacobs

When a mutinous spirit breaks out among the crew of the schooner, the Captain and Mate cannot comprehend the cause. As the sailors one by one refuse to eat the rotting food the Skipper has supplied, he decides to make an example of the cabin boy. 


The crew come up with an ingenious plan to change the Skipper's mind and release the stocks of fresh meat and butter. They decide to fake the death by suicide of the cabin boy... but things do not turn out quite as they had hoped. 


Hilarious!

Show book

And My Shoes Keep Walking Back...

Kathi Kamen Goldmark

A down-on-her-luck country music singer finds sudden stardom, and backstage backstabbing, in this funny, “fast-paced, feel-good novel” (Booklist).   After getting kicked off the tour by a famous, egomaniacal performer, sexy Sarah Jean Pixlie is suddenly catapulted from struggling backup singer to blazing star on the country music scene. Encountering more than her share of conniving backstabbers, she has the bad judgment to fall in love with a couple of musicians, but the good fortune to have the (often misguided) support of a very offbeat family. But no matter what befalls her, she pours her irreverent, savvy soul into the lyrics of her songs, including “Hell on Heels,” “Credit Card Christmas,” and “My Baby Used to Hold Me (Now He’s Putting Me on Hold).” Witty and fresh, this Northern California-to-Nashville romp is a great performance on stage and on the page.   “Goldmark takes an offbeat spin through the world of country music in her charming debut . . . A quirky, satirical edge [and] playful humor.” —Publishers Weekly   “This book has romance, heartache, gossip, scandal, and plenty of digs at the twisted workings of the music industry, all told in a breezy, sassy style.” —Bust   “Perfect for your summer trip to the beach.” —O, the Oprah Magazine

Show book

The 2000s Made Me Gay - Essays...

Grace Perry

This program is read by the author.From The Onion and Reductress contributor, this collection of essays is a hilarious nostalgic trip through beloved 2000s media, interweaving cultural criticism and personal narrative to examine how a very straight decade forged a very queer woman."Honest, funny, smart, and illuminating.” —Anna Drezen, co-head writer of SNL"If you came of age at the intersection of Mean Girls and The L Word: Read this book.” —Sarah Pappalardo, editor in chief and co-founder of ReductressToday’s gay youth have dozens of queer peer heroes, both fictional and real, but former gay teenager Grace Perry did not have that luxury. Instead, she had to search for queerness in the (largely straight) teen cultural phenomena the aughts had to offer: in Lindsay Lohan’s fall from grace, Gossip Girl, Katy Perry’s “I Kissed A Girl,” country-era Taylor Swift, and Seth Cohen jumping on a coffee cart. And, for better or worse, these touch points shaped her adult identity. She came out on the other side like many millennials did: in her words, gay as hell.Throw on your Von Dutch hats and join Grace on a journey back through the pop culture moments of the aughts with The 2000s Made Me Gay, before the cataclysmic shift in LGBTQ representation and acceptance—a time not so long ago, which many seem to forget.A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Griffin

Show book

Great Astronomers

Robert Stawell Ball

Of all the natural sciences there is not one which offers such sublime objects to the attention of the inquirer as does the science of astronomy. From the earliest ages the study of the stars has exercised the same fascination as it possesses at the present day. Among the most primitive peoples, the movements of the sun, the moon, and the stars commanded attention from their supposed influence on human affairs. From the days of Hipparchus down to the present hour the science of astronomy has steadily grown. One great observer after another has appeared from time to time, to reveal some new phenomenon with regard to the celestial bodies or their movements, while from time to time one commanding intellect after another has arisen to explain the true import of the facts of observations. The history of astronomy thus becomes inseparable from the history of the great men to whose labours its development is due.  In the ensuing chapters we have endeavoured to sketch the lives and the work of the great philosophers, by whose labours the science of astronomy has been created.  (from the Introduction)

Show book