THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST BY MOHSIN HAMID

At a cafe table in LAHORE, a bearded Pakistani man converses with an uneasy, American stranger. As dusk deepens to night, he begins the tale that has brought them to this fateful encounter.

Changez is living an immigrant's dream of America. At the top of his class in Princeton, he is snapped up by an elite valuation firm. He thrives on the energy of New York, and his budding romance with elegant and beautiful Erica promises entry into Manhattan society at the same exhalted level once occupied by his own family back in Laghore.

But, in the wake of September 11, Changez finds his position in his adopted city suddenly overturned and his relationship with Erica shifting. And Changez's own identity is in seismic shift as well, unearthing allegiances more fundamental than money, power and maybe even, love.