Rebel English Academy

Confirms his standing as one of south Asia's most unnervingly funny and subversive voices...Smart, taut and electrifying, the tale fuses slapstick and the fun of a cat-and-mouse thriller with the serious reckoning work of a state-of-the-nation novel...Crackling with incendiary themes and theses, this account of life under authoritarian siege is fiercely local and incontestably universal, harrowing and mutinously entertaining: a sure-fire Booker contender * Guardian *
I would also recommend Rebel English Academy, a droll satire on life in an authoritarian state * Independent *
A Case of Exploding Mangoes felt fresh - juicy, even - in its inquisition into all the possible explanations for the unsolved mystery of Zia's death. Rebel English Academy is just as well made, with its prose lively and the pieces of its plot slotting neatly together . . . the book is alive throughout with a sense of death's-head mischief * New York Times Book Review *
These interconnected characters face the dissent and violence of the changing political landscape as Pakistan moves towards modernity. Compelling * Daily Mail *
Mohammed Hanif's incendiary comic novel, Rebel English Academy, makes strong demands on American readers - and rewards them . . . In the brilliant recklessness of Hanif's prose, we're falling into a volatile story about the uses and abuses of fire - and the combustible nature of truth . . . Like the American writer Paul Beatty, Hanif uses comedy not to relieve but to destabilize, to scrape beneath the crust of political reverence and make contact with the lunacy of life under tyranny -- Ron Charles
Mohammed Hanif'selegant, tensile novel exposes the long shadow of colonialism in a fable beautifully tailored to resonate in 2026 -- Hamilton Cain * TIME *
Dangerous love and subversive politics collide in this cleverly plotted, darkly satirical and wildly entertaining historical drama * Shelf Awareness (starred review) *
Hanif strikes a successful balance between the darkly humorous and the deadly serious * Publishers Weekly *
An elegantly spun tale that punctures holes in our every expectation of life in an authoritarian state * Kirkus Reviews *
Mohammed Hanif is a brave, gifted writer -- Mohsin Hamid, author of EXIT WEST
Hanif is dexterous and ambitious with the literary tools of both east and west...Combine this with humour as cutting as Heller or Evelyn Waugh...and you have something wildly original * Guardian, on RED BIRDS *
Witty, elegant and deliciously anarchic. Hanif has a lovely eye and an even better ear -- John le Carré, on A CASE OF EXPLODING MANGOES
An insanely brilliant, satirical first novel . . . Belongs in a tradition that includes Catch-22, but it also calls to mind the biting comedy of Philip Roth * Washington Post, on A CASE OF EXPLODING MANGOES *