Thursday, December 18, 2014

The top 10 novels about 9/11

The Last Illusion author Porochista Khakpour selects her favourite fiction about the September 11 attacks on New York

Central event … New York after the attack on the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001.
Central event … New York after the attack on the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001. Photograph: Paul Turner/Getty Images
Both my first novel, Sons and Other Flammable Objects, and my latest one, The Last Illusion, are 9/11 novels. I have never minded that classification, as the attacks were a central event in both of them, just as they were in my life. Another reason is that I feel they are in good company. Critics have been quick to dismiss the 9/11 literature that has emerged, but there are several truly great books that have tackled this fairly impossible subject, and dozens more pretty good ones. These are my recommendations, published between 2003 and 2011.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

Hamid is one of my favourite writers and this book is pretty mind-blowing. For one thing, its narrative structure is fascinating: the whole thing is a dramatic monologue. We’re in a cafe in Lahore and a Pakistani is telling his life story to an American. The Pakistani happens to be a former American – a successful Princeton graduate, who at one time had a great job and an American girlfriend. After 9/11, he retreats from it all, but the real question is: how much of a choice did he have?

The Emperor’s Children by Claire Messud

Messud has been a great supporter of my work, so it may look biased to choose this; but many agree The Emperor’s Children is the best 9/11 novel. Messud captures the struggles of a still-very-much-alive Manhattan privileged intellectual class through the portrait of three friends, just as well as she evokes those months leading up to the attacks.
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