"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. 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. "Strong performances ground this exploration of dissent, education, and authority." "Vidish Athavale and Nimra Bucha work well together to deliver the intersecting political and personal storylines in this fictional look at Pakistan. The novel is set during a period of martial law in the 1970s after the deaths of major political leaders. Athavale voices Sir Baghi and the charged atmosphere of the sleepy OK Town with measured gravity, carrying scenes of protest, surveillance, and institutional pressure with steady control. Bucha gives Sabiha a contained intensity as her life story unfolds through the act of writing. Together, both narrators track the movements of Captain Gul and the tightening grip of martial law with clear articulation and narrative focus."
