Discontent and its Civilizations Dispatches from Lahore, New York, and London

Mohsin Hamid

Penguin Books India

256 pages, Rs. 399

Alongside his highly acclaimed novels, Hamid has, over the years, published superb pieces on politics, literature and his own life. Collected for the first time, the essays make a compelling case for recognising our common humanity while relishing our diversity—both as readers and as citizens—and for always judging a country or nation by how it treats its minorities. As Hamid writes: “Each individual human being is, after all, a minority of one.”