Red Birds

Description

A powerful novel about war, family and love, from the bestselling, prize-winning author dubbed ‘Pakistan’s brightest voice’ (Guardian)

An American pilot crash lands in the desert and takes refuge in the very camp he was supposed to bomb. Hallucinating palm trees and worrying about dehydrating to death isn’t what Major Ellie expected from this mission. Still, it’s an improvement on the constant squabbles with his wife back home.

In the camp, teenager Momo’s money-making schemes are failing. His brother left for his first day at work and never returned, his parents are at each other’s throats, his dog is having a very bad day, and an aid worker has shown up wanting to research him for her book on the Teenage Muslim Mind.

Written with his trademark wit, keen eye for absurdity and telling important truths about the world today, Red Birds reveals master storyteller Mohammed Hanif at the height of his powers.

Reviews

“Red Birds is 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

“An incisive, unsparing critique of war and of America’s role in the destruction of the Middle East…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

“Funny, fresh, and not afraid to draw blood, this is an unusual gem of a book.” ―Kirkus Reviews

“Hanif has written a splendidly satirical novel that beautifully captures the absurdity and folly of war and its ineluctable impact on its survivors. At turns funny and heartbreaking, it is a memorable contribution to the literature of conflict.” ―Booklist

“Red Birds is a fresh marvel, describing with cool wit and steely yet tender intelligence the interlinked fates of antagonists in a forgotten war-scape – and the complicity of our own sheltered lives in remote conflicts.” ―Guardian

“[A] wonderfully strange exploration of the effects of war on civilians. Mohmmed Hanif’s Red Birds is part Catch-22, part Slaughterhouse-Five, part Kafka’s The Castle, and all Hanif’s darkly satirical wit and wildly creative imagination.” ―BookBrowse

“An impressive multi-voiced performance that straddles bitter tragedy and pungent black comedy, grounded realism and flighty absurdity … Red Birds thrums with rambunctious energy… this is writing with guts, satire with bite” ―National

“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

“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

“Hanif has a talent for taking the most serious subjects…and, in a style indebted to Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, emphasising their fundamental absurdity through satire. Hanif’s authorial gifts are undeniable and Red Birds is written with ambition and powerful satirical anger.” ―Literary Review

“Deploying a relentlessly grim gallows humour, Hanif skewers the entrenched insanity of conflict … Hanif’s bleak, formidable use of irony burns deeply.” ―Daily Mail

Author Biography

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 a new opera Bhutto. He writes regularly for the New York Times, BBC Urdu, and BBC Punjabi. He currently splits his time between Berlin and Karachi.