Home Boy
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- £3.99
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- £3.99
Publisher Description
Meet the Metrostanis, three young Pakistani men in New York City at the turn-of-the-millennium: AC, a gangsta rap spouting academic; Jimbo, a hulking Pushtun deejay from the streets of Jersey City; and Chuck, a wide-eyed, off-the-boat kid, searching for himself and the American Dream.
In a city where origins matter less than the talent for self invention, they have the guts to claim the place as their own. But after the fall of the towers they embark on a road-trip to the hinterland in search of 'The Shaman', a Gatsbyesque compatriot who seemingly disappears into thin air - and then things begin to go horribly wrong. Suddenly, they find themselves in a changed, charged America . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Naqvi's debut novel introduces Chuck, a 20-something Pakistani living in New York and one of the most engaging protagonists to come along in a while. After moving from Karachi to attend NYU, Chuck readily adapts to the customs of his new home especially those involving alcohol, cocaine and skirt chasing but he's not the average drunk college kid: he and his friends, AC and Jimbo, are like a Pakistani-American version of the Three Musketeers in their own eyes, "boulevardiers, raconteurs, renaissance men." After graduating, Chuck lands a job as an investment banker (his mother's idea), and after a good run, he's fired during a brief economic downturn. Shortly thereafter, his former office building, 7 World Trade Center, is the third building to go down on 9/11. Suddenly, the act of the debonair dandy is a little harder to pull off: with no job, little money, and the rapidly increasing hostility of Americans towards all things Muslim, Chuck struggles to make sense of his newfound status as an outsider. Naqvi's fast-paced plot, foul-mouthed erudition and pitch-perfect dialogue make for a stellar debut.