Rebel English Academy: Mohammed Hanif: Newcastle Centre For The Literary Arts

“Unnervingly funny and subversive . . . this account of life under authoritarian siege is fiercely local and incontestably universal, harrowing and mutinously entertaining” —The Guardian 

In a rare public appearance, the brilliant Booker-longlisted Mohammed Hanif comes to NCLA to read from and discuss ‘Rebel English Academy’, his wonderful new novel about the power of language, friendship, and protest in the face of political turmoil in Pakistan. 

When a major Pakistani political figure is hanged, OK Town erupts in protest. A few miles away, Sir Baghi is surprised by a knock at the door of the Rebel English Academy, his tuition centre that offers affordable English lessons. An unexpected visitor, Sabiha, seeks refuge at the Academy – but she has a gun, her parents are political prisoners, her husband has just died in a suspicious fire, and she’s clearly hiding something. Baghi encourages Sabiha to write, and throughout the book her life unspools on the page. In Rebel English Academy, Pakistan is coming into modernity, struggling under martial law after the execution of its former leader. Wry, searing, and deeply relevant, this is a triumphant new novel about political power, religion, education, sexuality, and dissent.

Mohammed Hanif was born in Okara, Pakistan. He graduated from the Pakistan Air Force Academy as Pilot Officer but subsequently left to pursue a career in journalism. His first novel, ‘A Case of Exploding Mangoes’, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Novel. His second novel, ‘Our Lady of Alice Bhatti’, was shortlisted for the 2012 Wellcome Prize. He has written the libretto for an opera called ‘Bhutto’, commissioned by the Lyric Theater in Illinois, which premiered with the Pittsburgh Opera in 2019. He has also written for the stage and screen, including a BBC radio play, ‘What Now, Now That We Are Dead?’ He writes regularly for the New York Times, BBC Urdu, and BBC Punjabi, and currently splits his time between Berlin and Karachi.

Chaired by Preti Taneja, Professor of World Literature and Creative Writing at Newcastle University and Director of NCLA.