The Buddha of Suburbia
‘Utterly irreverent and wildly improper, but also genuinely touching and truthful. And very funny indeed.’ Salman Rushdie
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‘My name is Karim Amir, and I am an Englishman born and bred, almost.’
As the teenage hero of Hanif Kureishi’s debut novel, Karim is desperate to escape suburban South London and experience the forbidden fruits which the 1970s seem to offer. When the unlikely opportunity of a life in the theatre announces itself, he starts to win the sort of attention he has been craving, albeit with some rude and raucous results.
Brilliantly funny. A fresh, anarchic and deliciously unrestrained novel.
There was one copy going round our school like contraband. I read it in one sitting ... I'd never read a book about anyone remotely like me before.
Blithe, savvy, alive and kicking.
One of the best comic novels of growing up, and one of the sharpest satires on race relations in this country.
A wonderful novel. I doubt I will read a funnier one, or one with more heart, this year, possibly this decade.
An important time capsule for teenage life in 1970s London, confronting racial politics at a time
when immigrants were treated as intruders on British soil … a fresh and timely read.
Hanif Kureishi was born and brought up in Kent. He read philosophy at King’s College, London. In 1981 he won the George Devine Award for his plays Outskirts and Borderline, and in 1982 he was appointed Writer-in-Residence at the Royal Court Theatre. In 1984 he wrote My Beautiful Laundrette, which received an Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay. His second screenplay Sammy and Rosie Get Laid (1987) was…
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The Buddha of Suburbia, Hanif Kureishi’s debut novel won the Whitbread Award for first novel and inspired a groundbreaking BBC …
Watch the live stream of the our Faber Members event with Hanif Kureishi at the Bindery in London.
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