Rebel English Academy - by Mohammed Hanif (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

"Mohammed Hanif is a brave, gifted writer." --Mohsin Hamid, author of Exit West

From the brilliant Booker-longlisted Mohammed Hanif comes a lively, rich novel about the power of language, friendship, and protest in the face of political turmoil

When a major Pakistani political figure is hanged, OK Town erupts in protest.

A few miles away, Sir Baghi is surprised by a knock at the door of the Rebel English Academy, his tuition center that offers affordable English lessons. An unexpected visitor, Sabiha, seeks refuge at the Academy - but she has a gun, her parents are political prisoners, her husband has just died in a suspicious fire, and she's clearly hiding something. Baghi encourages Sabiha to write, and throughout the book her life unspools on the page.

Meanwhile Captain Gul, disgraced intelligence officer, has been banished to OK Town, where he aims to silence protesters by any means necessary. But his duties - and romantic desires - begin to overlap, and his already-dubious power is further threatened.

In Rebel English Academy, Pakistan is coming into modernity, struggling under martial law after the execution of its former leader. Mohammed Hanif has constructed a vibrant cast of interconnected characters that face this changing landscape with violence, passion, and the occasional sharp humor. Wry, searing, and deeply relevant, Rebel English Academy is a triumphant new novel about political power, religion, education, sexuality, and dissent.

Review Quotes

Praise for Mohammed Hanif:

"Mohammed Hanif is a brave, gifted writer." --Mohsin Hamid, author of Exit West

"Witty, elegant, and deliciously anarchic. Hanif has a lovely eye and an even better ear." --John le Carré, on Case of the Exploding Mangoes

"Like Catch-22, it is best understood as a satire of militarism, regulation and piety.... Hanif has written a historical novel with an eerie timeliness."--The New York Times Book Review on Case of the Exploding Mangoes

"Global satire with a savage bite. . . . Richly imagined."--The Miami Herald on Case of the 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 Case of the Exploding Mangoes

"A comedy for those who think, a tragedy for those who feel... Hanif does Karachi better than Rushdie does Bombay... Relentlessly readable, compulsively so as it surges towards it apocalyptic conclusion." --Guardian, on Our Lady of Alice Bhatti

"A piercingly laugh-out-loud novel in a genre that doesn't often abide comedy. But Hanif pushes his narrative beyond mere irony, expanding his critique of America's military interventions to include satire, ghost stories and absurdist touches -- up to and including a canine narrator that's usually smarter than any human in the room."--Washington Post on Red Birds

"An acutely observed refugee tale ... Both achingly realistic and elusively metaphysical ... dripping with exuberant disdain for the way in which western power has corrupted the world ... an effective satire that reminds us that everybody-- refugees, distraught mothers, unthinking airmen, well-meaning aid workers, dogs and ghosts - has a need to love, and be loved."--Observer on Red Birds

"A blistering, savage, tragicomic satire about the cruelty of war and the impossibility of peace ... Hanif writes of violence and bitterness with flashes of hilarity that underline his anger and his humanity."--Times on Red Birds

"Deploying a relentlessly grim gallows humour, Hanif skewers the entrenched insanity of conflict ... Hanif's bleak, formidable use of irony burns deeply."--Daily Mail on Red Birds

About the Author

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 Exploding Mangoes, 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 2012 Wellcome Prize. He has written the libretto for an opera called Bhutto, commissioned by the Lyric Theater in Illinois, which premiered 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? He writes regularly for the New York Times, BBC Urdu, and BBC Punjabi, and currently splits his time between Berlin and Karachi.