The Reluctant Fundamentalist is Mohsin Hamid's thrillingly provocative international bestseller, now available as a Penguin Essential for the first time. Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2007, it is now a major film directed by Mira Nair and starring Kate Hudson and Kiefer Sutherland.

"Excuse me, sir, but may I be of assistance? Ah, I see I have alarmed you. Do not be frightened by my beard. I am a lover of America..." So speaks the mysterious stranger at a Lahore café as dusk settles. Invited to join him for tea, you learn his name and what led this speaker of immaculate English to seek you out. He is more worldly than you might expect; better traveled and better educated. He knows the West better than you do. As he tells you his story of how he embraced the Western dream—and a Western woman—and how both betrayed him, the night darkens. Then the true reason for your meeting unfolds.