Welcome to university … here's a free book all about a terrorist

Published on Monday 1 June 2009 22:06

EVERY first-year student starting at St Andrews University this autumn will be given a copy of a book about a Muslim terrorist.

A copy of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, a novel by Mohsin Hamid, will be sent to all 1,500 freshers as part of a new partnership with the Man Booker Prize.

Mr Hamid's work, which was shortlisted for the award in 2007, has been selected by the university as likely to offer a topic for debate. The scheme is being paid for jointly by the Booker Prize Foundation and the university.

Principal Louise Richardson and Jonathan Taylor, chairman of the Booker Prize Foundation, have created the scheme, which they hope will take place every year at St Andrews.

Dr Richardson said: "This underlines our commitment to reading and discussion, and allows us to offer all our new students a stimulating common experience."

Each year, Dr Richardson and Mr Taylor will choose a different work from the prize shortlist to be sent to all new St Andrews undergraduates during the summer before they arrive. They will also receive invites to Freshers' Week book group meetings.

Mohsin Hamid will visit St Andrews in October to give a lecture and read from his works.

His novel is about a Muslim who gives up a career on Wall Street to become an Islamic terrorist after 11 September.

Its central character is Changez, a Pakistani who wins a scholarship to Princeton and embarks on a high-flying career with a New York finance firm. It follows his infatuations with western capitalism and an all-American girl called Erica.

But after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre in 2001, he begins to sympathise with the terrorists and goes through an identity crisis and disillusionment with his American Dream.

His tale is set one afternoon in a Lahore caf, where he tells an American visitor his life story.

Dr Richardson has spent her career combining research on terrorism with teaching.

She has written a number of academic books on the subject, including What Terrorists Want: Understanding the Enemy, Containing the Threat.