War Of Words

MOHAMMED HANIF’s latest novel is one of the most anticipated books of the year. A potential instant classic, the author tells SHAHNAZ SIGANPORIA how this might be his most personal yet.

“We used to have art for art’s sake; now we have war for the sake of war” reads a line from Mohammed Hanif’s latest novel, Red Birds. Writers have relentlessly written about war, and Hanif’s latest will probably go on to join the best in this canon. His is a satire of our age—of money-making schemes in forgotten camps, electrocuted mongrels, lost men, and the women left behind in asymmetrical wars. It’s specific, relevant to the violence we know in headlines and hashtags, but generously buttressed in the universal absurdity of life and death. Witty, eviscerating in its irony and sneeringly insightful, this novel is packed with what we’ve come to recognise as Hanifian trademarks. A recommended read of the season, the writer and journalist shares his experience of writing this novel, battling censorship and understanding his feminist gaze.

It’s been seven years since your last novel. What made you return to fiction?

I returned to it every single day of those seven years. Sometimes it was there and sometimes it just disappeared. It’s like going to the same spot every day of your life in the hope of catching a glimpse of your beloved, and sometimes they are there as you remember them and sometimes there’s just an empty spot.

Your first novel, A Case Of Exploding Mangoes, began with your obsession to unravel the assassination of General Muhammad Zia ul-Haq. Your second, Our Lady Of Alice Bhatti, began when you imagined a female superhero vindicating her rights. What sparked Red Birds?