Dr. Stephan Flores (sflores@uidaho.edu)    
Class meets Fall 2018: TR 2:00pm-3:15pm Niccol 208 (Moscow) and HC 128 (CdA)
http://www.uidaho.edu/class/english/stephanflores.aspx                                           
http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~sflores/                                                  English Department: 885-6156
Office hours: W 2:30pm-4:00 p.m. & by appt.                                             Office: Brink 125

ENGL 429: Contemporary Fiction—The British Novel Since '2000'
(section 01 Moscow, section 02 Coeur d’Alene via videoconference)

Prerequisite(s): prior course in literature; in addition, English majors should have completed English 215 or also be enrolled in 215.

We'll explore contemporary "British" novels that present different strands of fiction—including varied narrative styles & structures— and legacies of history, culture, and politics. Novels by Kazuo Ishiguro (When We Were Orphans), Zadie Smith (White Teeth), Sarah Waters (Affinity), Aminatta Forna (The Hired Man), Mohsin Hamid (The Reluctant Fundamentalist), and Tom McCarthy (Remainder) engage with social and class structures, racial, ethnic, sexual, and gender orientations/relations, and questions of national, transnational, and postcolonial identities and institutions, with the violence and force of power represented at times directly and explicitly--I hope that we can engage our 'hearts and minds' with these texts and our conversations, with diligence, frank goodwill, and intellectual fortitude. Course work includes weekly concise Inquiry-Starters, a brief reflective essay, a Critical Analysis Essay, and a Term Essay. 

Written work includes weekly concise Inquiry-Starters posted on Bblearn, a Summary & Critical Reflection, a Critical Analysis Essay, and a Term Essay. Our studies and your writing include substantial engagement with scholarly essays on several of the ‘early’ novels and some consideration of the development of the novel/theories of the novel.

Required texts:

Ishiguro, Kazuo. When We Were Orphans (2000). Vintage International, 2001. ISBN: 0-375-72440-0

Smith, Zadie. White Teeth: A Novel (2000). Vintage International, 2001. ISBN: 0-375-70386-1

Waters, Sarah. Affinity (1999). Riverhead Books, 2002. ISBN: 978-1-57322-873-2

Hamid, Mohsin. The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007). Harvest/Harcourt, 2008. ISBN: 978-0-15-603402-9

Forna, Aminatta. The Hired Man (2013 ). Grove Press, 2014. ISBN: 978-0-8021-2192-9

McCarthy, Tom. Remainder (2005). Vintage Books, 2005. ISBN: 978-0-307-27835-7

Here is a general guiding premise/claim for this literature course and its outcomes (also see expected learning outcomes to be posted): Literature provides us with a way of understanding how our social life works. Human social life consists of narratives for living, with ‘narratives’ being understood here as an actual life experience spread over time and guided by cultural stories that justify it to participants. Both the cultural and real-world narrative can change; both use frames to exclude norm-dissonant perspectives and values and to ensure that the meanings that support the continuity and homogeneity of the lived process are stable, predictable, and enforced. Who tells the stories in the culture thus largely shapes how that cultural world will be organized. Stories are what people believe and how they believe, and how people believe determines how they act and how they live. Stories can change how people think, perceive, believe, and act. The analysis of the work they perform is thus an important endeavor. And that is what criticism is all about. (An Introduction to Criticism: Literature/Film/Culture--Wiley-Blackwell, 2012).

Broader contexts for desired course outcomes are situated within the department's goals for the English major and the university's learning outcomes. In addition, as mentioned see further below for learning outcomes specific to this course and to 400-level literature courses. The primary desired learning outcomes for this course, beyond the department's specified outcomes for 300-400 level literature courses, include the primary two outcomes below, and those listed at this weblink for 400-level literature classes as well as additional outcomes for this class.

1. Developing a critical understanding of a selective representation of contemporary British novels since 2000, including significant cultural and political contexts and historical shifts over this period.

2. Developing critical reading and writing practices and competencies, in relation not only to primary literary texts but also substantial range of scholarship on selected novels/novelists.

Login to Bblearn before our first class meeting by using your UIDAHO NetID. You can update your password at http://help.uidaho.edu/. If you haven't already, setup your NetID at www.vandalsetup.uidaho.edu. If you continue to experience problems accessing BbLearn after changing your password, please contact the ITS Help Desk by email helpdesk@uidaho.edu, or phone (208)885-HELP.
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Requirements:

1. Eleven written Inquiry Starters (ISs--11 total over the course of the semester): a combination of citation (summary-review) with thesis/problem-driven response (at minimum 250 words each), due by 1 p.m. on your choice of either Tuesday or Thursday, but aim to post some on Tuesdays and some on Thursdays. Each IS should demonstrate a reflective engagement with that week's reading assignment(s), to include finding a couple of points of interest that enable you to take a stance/make a claim, state a point of view/thesis about the texts/ideas--see two examples via this weblink and also/especially the four examples posted in two posts on the first discussion thread. Particularly for the 'older' novels for which scholarly criticism exists (Bblearn folders), take advantage of that scholarship, to enrich your engagement with each of those novels, and also to learn from and think about how each of the critics identify questions/problems and frame their analyses. You may find points/ideas/claims to build upon, perhaps even to transfer to your interpretation with other novels.

Inquiry Starters present a means for you and the class to share close critical analysis, enthusiasms and questions as you delve into the text’s significance, methods, and effects, and to learn from others' comments (a version of Graff's "They Say, I Say" exchange, see Bblearn). No late entries —Inquiry Starters are due/posted on the Bblearn discussion thread no later than 1 p.m. and must address a scheduled text or relevant piece of scholarship for that day (in other words, do not post about a Tuesday text on Thursday). See left side menu on Bblearn, click on that, then find appropriate thread for each IS, and post an entry and provide a "title" for your entry. Inquiry Starters are to be posted on Bblearn no later than 1 p.m. the day of class. Entries posted any later than 1 p.m. will lose five points--that is, your semester point total will be reduced by five points for each late or missing Inquiry-Starter entry. Come to class prepared to talk about your ISs/ideas; at times we'll spotlight individual ISs, using the projector to introduce the ISs via Bblearn to facilitate discussion, so keep in mind that you may be called upon in class to comment further upon your IS. I attend to the ISs as part of my evaluation of your performance in the course--strive each week for a full and thoughtful/analytical entry--avoid posting entries that are too brief and/or mainly descriptive rather than analytical (points might be deducted). Remember: Missing or late inquiry-starter entries will be counted against your semester grade, and if your grades are on a borderline between grade ranges then missing even one entry may reduce your semester grade (see below); however, you have one opportunity at the end of the semester to post an Inquiry Starter on Remainder or on a piece of criticism/theory that will make up for a previous missing or late Inquiry Starter--see this in the list of IS discussion threads in the Bblearn folder. Note also that along with in-class participation, the quality of your Inquiry Starters forms part of the points awarded for Participation (at midterm and at the end of semester).

2. Concise Critical Reflection essay, 'should' be on either When We Were Orphans or on White Teeth, due by noon Monday October 1, uploaded to Bblearn (include your last name as part of the document title, such as Smith_429_F18_CCR, also double-spaced 12 pt, Times New Roman, 1-inch margins, headers in upper right corner with last name and page number, and indicate on your first page that this is your Critical Reflection Essay, MLA format,and for Moscow-based students, also hard copy to Brink 200 or bring hard copy to class on Tuesday [see Bblearn folder "Advice on Writing Essays" and see this immediately prior & following highlighted weblink for fuller advice on writing critical essay(s)]; 800 words ): write a reflective, question -and problem-posing critical essay (concise/800 words) that explains and explores what you consider to be one of the most important/compelling/useful and/or problematic interpretative issues/ideas//theories in the novel under review: that is, focus your critical reflection and inquiry on some aspect of what you have learned about studying a particular novel. Given the brevity of this essay, you may find it useful to quote briefly from one or more passages from a novel and from a scholar/critic (see Bblearn folders) in order to support your inquiry with a specific illustration and point of reference/departure. You also may find it effective to compose a thesis for your essay that maps out the significant points that you want to develop and discuss. Assume that your audience is familiar with what we have read and studied, and take care to articulate clearly your inquiry into the material, especially problems or contradictions that seem difficult to resolve. See this weblink for additional concise advice on writing a critical essay or this weblink for fuller advice.

*NOTE on the following two essays/assignments: you may choose to write and submit the longer Term Essay by November 5, and then submit the somewhat shorter Critical Analysis Essay no later than noon Monday December 10, if you prefer to switch your work in that way. At least one of these essays must be about one (or more) of the following novels: When We Were Orphans, White Teeth, Affinity, and/or The Reluctant Fundamentalist (with significant reference to at least two scholarly articles on the novel in question).

3. Critical Analysis Essay on (unless you write about one of those novels in your Term Essay) uploaded to Bblearn no later than 12pm noon Monday November 5 (or the essay will be counted late, and no later than Thursday at 2pm for an absolute late deadline-- (include your last name as part of the document title, such as Smith_429_F18_CA, also double-spaced 12 pt, Times New Roman, 1-inch margins, headers in upper right corner with last name and page number, and indicate on your first page that this is your Critical Analysis Essay, MLA format,and for Moscow-based students [see Bblearn folder "Advice on Writing Essays" and see this immediately prior&following highlighted weblink for fuller advice on writing critical essay(s)]; 1600 words/six pages for main body of essay, double-spaced, with reference to at least two pieces of “instructor-specified” secondary criticism beyond our assigned reading, according to selections posted on our class Bblearn folders for criticism on each novel; that is, you must refer to/cite/draw upon at least two substantial article/book chapters from the Bblearn folder for the corresponding novel. Though you may consult other/outside secondary criticism from scholarly journals and books, do not plan to make those sources the primary, informing perspectives and research for your essay.You may draw upon/incorporate/revise one or more of your Inquiry Starters as well as your Concise Reflection essay assignment as a means to discover and to develop a topic, but you are not required or expected to do so. I encourage you to send to me by email a concise description of your provisional topic and 'thesis/perspective' in advance of the due date. The primary aims of this thesis-seeking/problem-posing exploratory essay assignment is to engage with one or more novels corresponding critical interpretation/reception by identifying problems, developing claims and arguments, and enriching your literary understanding, interests, and commitments. I am not necessarily interested so much in whether your analysis is 'original' as I am in whether you address an interesting topic, explore interpretive/analytic issues productively, and demonstrate understanding that proceeds from your own reading as well as your research. Use/learn Modern Language Association format for any notes or works cited (see, for instance, link to MLA format guidelines further below). See also University of Idaho Guidelines on Academic Dishonesty (including plagiarism). In accordance with the UI Student Code of Conduct, I report instances of academic dishonesty/plagiarism, to the office of the Dean of Students. See rubric for evaluating the Critical Essay and the Term Essay, further below.

4. Term Essay, titled, uploaded to Bblearn, include your last name as part of the document title, such as Smith_429_F18_TE) ) due no later than mid-day Monday noon December 10 on a novel or novels (excluding novel (s) of prior Critical Analysis Essay or at least the essay cannot be primarily about the novel that was the primary focus of your other essay, double-spaced (12 pt, Times New Roman, 1-inch margins, headers in upper right corner with last name and page number, and indicate on your first page that this is your Term Essay, MLA format, approximately 10 or more pages for main body of essay), with significant reference to at least two secondary works of criticism on the novel if such criticism is available (the minimum two scholarly sources are to be selected from folders on Bblearn, that include recent articles or book chapters. Do refer to book reviews or other theoretical work that informs your analysis): this critical term essay develops ideas prompted by our study and discussion of the novels, by recent scholarship, and by your perspectives. I shall attend to the ways that you select, define, and engage questions and contradictions, and to the clarity, imagination, and grace that you demonstrate in presenting your topic, (hypo)thesis, and argument, and the extent to which your work engages with, explains, and contributes to the larger "conversation" of scholarship on the topic and novel under analysis. I do not always expect essays to conclude by "solving" such problems or by "proving" your thesis; I hope that you address interesting topics (questions for debate, interpretation, and analysis) in thoughtful and useful ways. Note: you may continue to explore/pursue your inquiries into a prior topic and line of analysis, but do not substantially repeat prior, specific analysis from your previous Critical Essay. Please feel invited to confer with me during the writing process, by office hours (including Zoom videoconference via Bblearn link) and email. See also general advice for critical essays similar to prior advice on the Critical Essay that also pertains to this term essay. See also University of Idaho Guidelines on Academic Dishonesty (including plagiarism). In accordance with the UI Student Code of Conduct, I report instances of academic dishonesty/plagiarism, to the office of the Dean of Students. Be prepared to talk about your topic and approach/thesis in class Tuesday December 4th.

Concise Advice for this assignment: Work to present a clearly written argument and analysis, based on evidence, about the meaning, power, or structure of the novel(s) that you select. Aim to produce a narrative that offers an explanation for the effects of the novel—these effects, for instance, include (arguably) the ideas and feelings produced by the novel. You will need to describe the evidence you are using, state your interpretations of this evidence, and bring those insights together into a claim (thesis) about the way the novel works, what it means, and how and why it has the effects that you claim (such as its emotional impact).  Such an argument aims to analyze examples in order to come to broader conclusions—your argument therefore should demonstrate inductive reasoning that moves logically and persuasively from particular pieces of compelling evidence to broader generalizations that advance, deepen, and enrich understanding. The evidence that you cite and analyze may include, for example, elements of narrative structure and techniques as well as attention to the novel's narrative arc, including its representation of specific cultural, historical, ideological issues, identities, and relationships. The story of the novel typically engages with conflicts, contradictions, and questions or problems, and your analysis may consider to what degree the novel seems to answer or to resolve such issues, and how it might open up new perspectives for understanding and experience.

5. Participation: Please take advantage of opportunities to share your insights and to listen and reply to others' ideas. I hope that questions and discussions will enable you to move the class in directions you find most helpful, give you opportunities to develop critical skills through collaboration, and provide for a productive, interesting exchange of perspectives among the class. You may meet periodically in small groups in class primarily for sharing Inquiry-Starters and to prompt our class discussions. I expect you to contribute productively to class discussion, and I will make an effort to call on you directly, especially if you tend not (!) to pitch in to share your views and questions. It is helpful, if you wish, to keep a weekly log in which you track your participation in class discussion, by jotting down in several sentences during or following each class meeting a brief notation of what you contributed to each class meeting, then submitting those typed or legibly handwritten 'journal entries' in one document to me prior to the midterm (email to me in MS Word doc by noon Oct 13) and again by Friday noon of the last week of regular class meetings. Review the Participation Guidelines and Rubric at this weblink.

6. All required work is due at the beginning of class on the due date—work turned in late will be graded accordingly. Required graded written work will be downgraded one notch (for example, B+ to B, converted to points for each assignment) for each weekday late (not just days classes meet but counting just one day for a weekend). Note, however, that the Critical Analysis Essay and the Term Essay cannot be turned in late. See assignments for deadlines for limits on late essays. I will grant short extensions for medical and family emergencies—but talk with me as soon as possible to request an extension. Always keep copies of your work.

7. Attendance: always attend class (unless you are sick). One to three absences will noted in Bblearn in a minimal way for recordkeeping (-.1 point for each of up to three absences, so for instance, -.2 means that I have noted two absences); a third absence will count more substantially (- 3pts) only if you have four or more absences; a five-point reduction for each absence starts with four absences (four absences=minus 8 points, five absences = minus 13 points); six or more absences is sufficient cause for you to receive a failing grade for the course, regardless of your semester point total. All absences will be counted—excused or not—if something extraordinary occurs, talk to me. Please try to schedule appointments with doctors or advisors outside of class time.

Exceptional circumstances: Another category of absence has to due with conflicting university commitments that are academic (such as a theater majors' trip to a regional conference) or a required UI athletic trip, or a conflict directly related to next steps in your career/professional life (such as a job interview) etc.—that is, absences that are due to a departmental or team trip (with supporting note from an academic adviser or the athletic department), or prolonged or recurring illness, or an extraordinary personal/family event/crisis. You may use this option for such make-up work up to three times. To make up for (up to three) such absences on an absence-by-absence basis in a timely fashion/time frame, choose a scholarly article or substantial headnote/chapter from our text(s) or from a Bblearn folder—select one that can be related in some way to the text under discussion for the day for which you will be absent due to a university academic or sports commitment/conflict.

Write a concise summary (275 words) of some main aspect of the scholarly article/source—such as the primary, most important or engaging idea(s) and point(s) of argument and interpretation—also include some brief reflection (75-100 words) on the article’s main ideas/argument: for example, what  you find most valuable or problematic. Strive to be accurate, direct, and concise in the summary; aim for a fair, nonpartisan stance and tone, and except for brief quotes use your own words to express the author's ideas, use attributive tags (such as according to Smith or Smith argues that) to keep the reader informed that you are expressing another's ideas, and focus the summary to produce a cohesive, coherent account. You might begin the summary by identifying the question or the problem that the essay addresses, then state the essay's purpose or thesis and summarize its argument or primary analysis.
Post your entry as an extra Inquiry Starter for that week (to be posted no later than a week following the missed class), and also send an email to me with the content of that post (sflores@uidaho.edu).

8. Grades: Concise Reflection Essay (35 pts.); Critical Analysis Essay (100 pts); Term Essay (130 pts); Participation (15 pts). These required assignments add up to a maximum of 280 points. Thus 252-280 points equals an A, 224-251 equals a B, 196-223 equals a C, 168-195 equals a D, and anything below 168 receives an F. Incomplete or missing Inquiry-Starter entries will be counted against your semester grade, with the loss of five points for each missing or incomplete entry. NOTE, therefore, that missing even one Inquiry Starter combined for example with four absences, could affect your overall semester grade by lowering your total points by 13 points. You might earn grades in the A(-) range, for instance, on the Critical Essay and on the Term Essay, yet receive a B for the semester if you incur such penalty points because of missing ISs and absences--make every effort to complete each week's ISs on time, in part because such penalty points add up all too quickly. I update Bblearn with grades/points or deducted points as those accumulate. Be sure to keep track of your assigned work and points received, and especially by mid-November review your point totals for the graded assignments, 'midterm' participation grade, and any accumulated penalty points to date for missing/late ISs, and absences. It is helpful, if you wish, to keep a weekly log in which you track your participation in class discussion, by jotting down in several sentences during or following each class meeting a brief notation of what you contributed to each class meeting, then submitting those typed or legibly handwritten 'journal entries' in one document to me prior to the midterm and again in the last week of class.

9. Office hours. I encourage you to confer with me—especially before assignments are due—to talk about your interests, intentions, and writing strategies. If you cannot make my regular hours (in Brink 125), we’ll arrange another time. I also welcome communicating with you by E-mail (sflores@uidaho.edu). If you know that you plan to stop by my office, please let me know in advance by email, and include the desired or likely time frame, and what you'd like to discuss. If you are based in Couer d'Alene, we can arrange a time to confer via videochat by Zoom.

10. Use of laptops and cell phones during class is prohibited; occasional use of laptops—typically for group work and to access the online components of the class—may be permitted with my approval.

11. Do not submit work for this class that you have submitted or intend to submit for a grade in another course; as always, be careful to cite anyone else's work that you draw upon, this includes not only formal citation of secondary resources/scholarship for the primary, graded written assignments but also informal commentary, such as in the Inquiry Starters (do not, for instance, copy/revise material from such sources as SparkNotes, to substitute for your own critical observations and insights). See highlighted link on the class website to a useful guide to avoiding plagiarism, and a link to information on the university's policies regarding plagiarism. See also University of Idaho Guidelines on Academic Dishonesty (including plagiarism). In accordance with the UI Student Code of Conduct, I report instances of academic dishonesty/plagiarism, to the office of the Dean of Students.

12. Classroom Learning and Civility: To support learning and discovery in this course—as in any university course—it is essential that each member of the class feel as free and as safe as possible in his or her participation. To this end, we must collectively expect that everyone (students, professors, and guests) seek to be respectful and civil to one another in discussion, in action, in teaching, and in learning. Because knowledge and learning are constructed and construed through social inquiry and exchange, it is vital that course dialogue and debate encourage and expect a substantial range of reasoned, expressive, and impassioned articulation of diverse views in order to build a stronger understanding of the materials and of one another's ways of knowing. These practices strengthen our capacities for understanding and the production of (new) knowledge. As with the critical writing assignments for this class, our primary aims include engaging with texts and their varied critical interpretations by identifying problems, developing claims and arguments with supporting lines of evidence and explanation, and enriching our literary understanding, interests, and commitments.

Should you feel our classroom interactions do not reflect an environment of civility and respect, you are encouraged to meet with me during office hours to discuss your concern. Additional resources for expression of concern and avenues of support include the chair of the Department of English, Dr. Scott Slovic, the Dean of Students office and staff (5-6757), the UI Counseling & Testing Center’s confidential services (5-6716), or the UI Office of Human Rights, Access, & Inclusion (5-4285).

13. Disability Support Services: Reasonable accommodations are available for students who have documented temporary or permanent disabilities. All accommodations must be approved through Disability Support Services (885-6307; dss@uidaho.edu; www.uidaho.edu/dss) located in the Idaho Commons Building, Room 306 in order to notify your instructor(s) as soon as possible regarding accommodation(s) needed for the course.

When We Were Orphans: Born in early-twentieth-century Shanghai, Banks was orphaned at the age of nine after the separate disappearances of his parents. Now, more than twenty years later, he is a celebrated figure in London society; yet the investigative expertise that has garnered him fame has done little to illuminate the circumstances of his parents' alleged kidnappings. Banks travels to the seething, labyrinthine city of his memory in hopes of solving the mystery of his own, painful past, only to find that war is ravaging Shanghai beyond recognition-and that his own recollections are proving as difficult to trust as the people around him. Masterful, suspenseful and psychologically acute, When We Were Orphans offers a profound meditation on the shifting quality of memory, and the possibility of avenging one’s past.
"Swift, compelling, moving, irresistible."
--The Baltimore Sun
"Goes much further than even The Remains of the Day in its examination of the roles we've had handed to us... His fullest achievement yet."
--The New York Times Book Review
"You seldom read a novel that so convinces you it is extending the possibilities of fiction."
--Sunday Times (London)

White Teeth: Zadie Smith’s dazzling debut caught critics grasping for comparisons and deciding on everyone from Charles Dickens to Salman Rushdie to John Irving and Martin Amis. But the truth is that Zadie Smith’s voice is remarkably, fluently, and altogether wonderfully her own. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read. At the center of this invigorating novel are two unlikely friends, Archie Jones and Samad Iqbal. Hapless veterans of World War II, Archie and Samad and their families become agents of England’s irrevocable transformation. A second marriage to Clara Bowden, a beautiful, albeit tooth-challenged, Jamaican half his age, quite literally gives Archie a second lease on life, and produces Irie, a knowing child whose personality doesn’t quite match her name (Jamaican for “no problem”). Samad’s late-in-life arranged marriage (he had to wait for his bride to be born), produces twin sons whose separate paths confound Iqbal’s every effort to direct them, and a renewed, if selective, submission to his Islamic faith. Set against London’ s racial and cultural tapestry, venturing across the former empire and into the past as it barrels toward the future, White Teeth revels in the ecstatic hodgepodge of modern life, flirting with disaster, confounding expectations, and embracing the comedy of daily existence.
“A preternaturally gifted new writer [with] a voice that’s street-smart and learned, sassy and philosophical all at the same time.”–Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
 “Brilliant…. Smith is a master at detail…a postmodern Charles Dickens…[Smith's] rich storytelling and wicked wit are suited to the sights and smells of the world that England has inherited.”–The Washington Post
“[A] dazzling intergenerational first novel…wonderfully inventive…playful yet unaffected, mongrel yet cohesive, profound yet funny, vernacular yet lyrical. ”–Los Angeles Times

Affinity: An upper-class woman recovering from a suicide attempt, Margaret Prior has begun visiting the women’s ward of Millbank prison, Victorian London’s grimmest jail, as part of her rehabilitative charity work. Amongst Millbank’s murderers and common thieves, Margaret finds herself increasingly fascinated by on apparently innocent inmate, the enigmatic spiritualist Selina Dawes. Selina was imprisoned after a séance she was conducting went horribly awry, leaving an elderly matron dead and a young woman deeply disturbed. Although initially skeptical of Selina’s gifts, Margaret is soon drawn into a twilight world of ghosts and shadows, unruly spirits and unseemly passions, until she is at last driven to concoct a desperate plot to secure Selina’s freedom, and her own.
As in her noteworthy deput, Tipping the Velvet, Sarah Waters brilliantly evokes the sights and smells of a moody and beguiling nineteenth-century London, and proves herself yet again a storyteller, in the words of the New York Times Book Review, of "startling power."
“Unfolds sinuously and ominously…a powerful plot-twister…a truly suspenseful tale of terror; and a piece of elegant, thinly veiled erotica. Like a Ouija board, Affinity offers different messages to different readers, scaring the shrouds off everyone in the process.”
—USA Today
 “[Waters] displays her incredible talent for the Gothic historical novel in this splendid book about a Victorian women’s prison and the affair there between an inmate and a ‘lady visitor.’”
—San Francisco Chronicle
 “Gothic tale, psychological study, puzzle narrative…superbly suspenseful…This is gripping, astute fiction that feeds the mind and senses.”
—The Seattle Times

The Reluctant Fundamentlist: At a café table in Lahore, a bearded Pakistani man converses with an uneasy American stranger. As dusk deepens to night, he begins the tale that has brought them to this fateful encounter . . .
          Changez is living an immigrant’s dream of America. At the top of his class at Princeton, he is snapped up by an elite valuation firm. He thrives on the energy of New York, and his budding romance with elegant, beautiful Erica promises entry into Manhattan society at the same exalted level once occupied by his own family back in Lahore. But in the wake of September 11, Changez finds his position in his adopted city suddenly overturned, and his relationship with Erica shifting. And Changez’s own identity is in seismic shift as well, unearthing allegiances more fundamental than money, power, and maybe even love. The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a riveting, brilliantly unsettling exploration of the shadowy, unexpected connections between the political and the personal.
Short-listed for the Man Booker Prize
A Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year
A New York Times Notable Book
 “Extreme times call for extreme reactions, extreme writing. Hamid has done something extraordinary with this novel.”—Washington Post
“One of those achingly assured novels that makes you happy to be a reader.”—Junot Diaz
“Brief, charming, and quietly furious . . . a resounding success.”—Village Voice
“Elegant and chilling . . . his tale [has] an Arabian Nights–style urgency: the end of the story may mean the death of the teller.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Changez’s voice is extraordinary. Cultivated, restrained, yet also barbed and passionate, it evokes the power of butler Stevens in Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day.”—The Seattle Times

“A searing and powerful account of a Pakistani in New York after 9/11.”—Mira Nair, director of The Namesake

The Hired Man: An NPR, Boston Globe, and San Francisco Chronicle best book of the year, The Hired Man is an incisive, powerful novel of a small Croatian town and its dark wartime secrets, unwittingly brought into the light by a family of outsiders. Duro Kolak, a stoic lifelong resident of the Croatian village of Gost, is off on a morning’s hunt when he discovers that a British family has taken up residence in a house Duro knows well. He offers his assistance getting their water working again, and soon he is at the house every day, helping get it ready as their summer cottage, and serving as their trusted confidant. But the other residents of Gost are not as pleased to have the interlopers, and as the friendship deepens, the volatile truths about the town’s past and the house’s former occupants whisper ever louder. A masterpiece of storytelling haunted by lost love and a restrained menace, The Hired Man confirms Aminatta Forna as one of our most important writers.
“Forna is a born storyteller. . . . Not since Remains of the Day has an author so skillfully revealed the way history’s layers are often invisible to all but its participants. . . . Gorgeous.”—John Freeman, The Boston Globe
 “Haunting . . . Detail builds upon detail until the dread and violence that have been barely restrained burst into the open.”—Anthony Domestico, San Francisco Chronicle
“Forna modulates the growing suspense with exquisite skill. . . . Beautiful, reminiscent in its mesmerizing clarity of William Trevor’s fiction or Per Petterson’s.”—Anna Mundow, The Christian Science Monitor
“A stunning novel, beautifully executed and cleverly crafted. . . . masterful . . . a taut, unsettling but also intensely moving portrait of humanity at its most flawed.” –Minneapolis Star Tribune

Remainder: A man is severely injured in a mysterious accident, receives an outrageous sum in legal compensation, and has no idea what to do with it. Then, one night, an ordinary sight sets off a series of bizarre visions he can’t quite place. How he goes about bringing his visions to life–and what happens afterward–makes for one of the most riveting, complex, and unusual novels in recent memory. Remainder is about the secret world each of us harbors within, and what might happen if we were granted the power to make it real.
“A stunningly strange book about the rarest of fictional subjects: happiness.” –Jonathan Lethem
“a work of novelistic philosophy, as disturbing as it is funny” –Liesl Schillinger, The New York Times