Author Mohsin Hamid on his new novel, working with Riz Ahmed, and the value of the limited series

After a lifetime in his hometown of Lahore, Pakistan; United States; And in the UK, Mohsin Hamid is an expert not only at observing the world around him, but also at using the art around him. In 1993, he was a relatively recent transplant to the United States and wrote his first novel. moth smoke About Pakistan. When he moved to London in 2000, she wrote about the New York he had just left. A reluctant fundamentalist. And when he returned to his native Lahore, he began to conceive an idea the last white manIt wouldn’t take many years to write.

The book, which just came out, imagines a world in which whites begin to whiten blacks – slowly at first, some people waking up without their whiteness in different cities across the country, and then quickly, when suddenly everything appears in society. As similar on the outside as it is on the inside. “I was thinking about realizing after 9/11 that where before, if you had a racial position that wasn’t clearly black or white, you could live with a little bit of annoyance in terms of discrimination, but then you would be taken to court. , interrogations at the airport,” he says. “And I was thinking of a world where we realize that race is a fictional construct that we wanted to exist, but doesn’t exist on its own.”

As Hamid talks to him the hollywood reporter For this Zoom interview, he returned to New York; in fact, the author and his family are lending the director’s house for the film version. fundamentalist – where preparing for publication the last white man. He is embarking on a national book tour, an abbreviated version of a long and tiring journey to visit readers across the country he already knows, but since Hamid’s novels have sold millions of copies and his latest book is being adapted by a top publisher. Ground, the production company run by Barack and Michelle Obama, has plenty of fans waiting to ask questions. Here, he gives some answers about the inspiration behind his latest work and what he learned in the process of turning his books into movies.

From the American point of view, its interpretation is simple. the last white man As a reaction to the last presidential government. But I don’t think that’s the whole story of the inspiration for this book…

I had a specific idea early on in the Trump administration, what if this guy suddenly wakes up and he’s not white anymore? And if it starts to spread and how will it be? But it was a more narrative way of thinking about ideas that I’ve been thinking about for almost two decades. After 9/11, my racial category became much less neutral; People were nervous when you got on the subway and felt like something had changed, but I hadn’t. I felt a sense of loss, I wanted to go back to how I was before, but I also realized that I was an accomplice of the system. There have always been people who have experienced this danger assumption, but I’ve never experienced it before, so do I really want to go back to this system?

Both the last white man s west exit (which is in the works as a film) have an element of unreality; Changes in skin color Another man and magic doors that allow people to escape their country salt. Why do you think you were attracted to this style?

I believe that what we imagine to be real is not really real. Colors aren’t really colors; It’s just our brain’s interpretation of them. Or we imagine ourselves in a certain way, and when we act against it, we justify it by saying, “Oh, I wasn’t myself.” And fiction allows us to free ourselves from the tyrannical grip on reality. I also don’t think my books are far from the truth: west exit This is a world where distance collapses, and here you and I collapse through these devices we use to talk to each other. What I usually do at work is do emotionally What technology has already done is real. I think it’s an interesting way to explore our current moment.

What is your relationship with adapting your work? Do you feel invested in them or would you rather sit back and watch someone else take over the creative wheel??

The first international film made from one of my books was A reluctant fundamentalist And I think you can say I have a very good relationship with this film, considering I’m speaking to you from the living room of our director, Mira Nair. What I started doing 15 years ago, when we started working together, was sending my son to school, creatively speaking. I thought I’d give my book away and see how it goes. I trusted Mira and felt a strong personal connection and said, “Just get in touch if you have any questions.” But then they asked me to cooperate on the first drafts of the script, and during filming, they asked me for advice from time to time. So I had more roles than I expected, but I learned a lot.

What is the most valuable thing you’ve learned?

I write novels that allow the reader to imagine much of what happens in the story. All my novels try to create an ambiguous space that the reader can create for himself. When a film is made, suddenly everything has to become more concrete: the reader cannot be the director, because there is a real director. with fundamentalist, a book on suspecting without knowing whether we are right in our suspicions; It was supposed to be a movie where we would get to know who this suspicious character is, played by Liev Schreiber. The project became something very different, but beautiful in its own way, because it’s a very cosmopolitan film where people will come together to make it: an Indian director, a Pakistani writer. Now that I’m working with filmmakers, I realize how difficult it is for people to fill the void I’ve created. Someone will tell me, oh, my book is like a movie, but then the years go by with various writers and versions of the script and it still doesn’t fit.

From the outside, as a fan of the book, it might seem like it takes forever to successfully put together adaptations. …

I actually just had some really interesting conversations with some of the writers and directors and what they said really stuck with me. They pointed out that the novels I write are already quite small and have undergone a great deal of compression; if you try to turn them into feature films and compress them even more, it’s hard to handle. So I started thinking about the value of the limited series and I think it was worth a try and also that I should try to be more active on the team trying to bring the last white man for life. This is a big change in perspective for me, but after so many years on the sidelines, I should probably start wondering if I have any skills or abilities in this area.

That is west exit Still confirmed as a feature film?

It’s on track now to be a movie. It is being developed by the Obamas’ Higher Ground Productions for Netflix, starring Riz Ahmed. This process has been going on for some time, so hopefully it will soon reach a point where it can move forward. I think everyone’s appetite has been for progress.

Did you make a concerted effort to work with Reese?

we cooperate A reluctant fundamentalistOf course, and he’s a personal friend and someone I have a lot of respect for. I think artistically he has a lot of integrity. He takes what he does very seriously and is therefore always looking for other people who are in the right place to collaborate. We often talk about books, movies and world events, but he also gives me feedback about my books. We fight over ideas. He’s someone I look for as a collaborator not only on specific projects, but in our lives and thinking about the work we do.

I can’t let you go without asking if you know Barack and Michelle Obama. …

You know, I haven’t met them yet. I hope so, but there are probably a few hundred million more people who want to meet them. But I really admire what they’re doing with it. Both are serious writers, which is rare among political figures. I cannot speak from personal experience, I have the feeling that they approach the work as authors of something. that there is authorship in the types of projects they carry out. So I’m excited to see what happens.