What do you think?
The Black Album with My Son the Fanatic: A Novel and a Short Story
Now available together for the first time, two of the best works, a novel and a short story, from Ooscar-nominated screenwriter Hanif Kureishi, one of the most original, celebrated, and prophetic voices in British fiction and film. First capturing the attention of audiences and critics in the 1980s with award-winning works such as The Buddha of Suburbia, and My Beautiful Laundrette, and recently described by The New York Times Magazine as "a kind of postcolonial Philip Roth," Hanif Kureishi remains one of the most compelling artists of our time. These stunningly prescient earlier works of Kureishi's are more timely and relevant than ever, and they're now reissued in one volume.
The Black Album, Kureishi's second novel, is an exhilarating multicultural coming-of-age tale featuring Shalid, a sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll-loving Pakistani student torn between a love affair with a gorgeous free-spirited college professor and his desire to please his conservative Muslim community. In the story "My Son the Fanatic," which is also an award-winning film, Kureishi reveals the shifting values between a father and son, two generations of immigrants struggling between assimilation and separatist fundamentalism. Praised as an author who "fully entertains while addressing wickedly complex social issues" (San Francisco Chronicle), Kureishi infuses these deft and vivid stories with his love of non-conformity and his understanding of the ties that bind us to family and culture.
The Black Album, Kureishi's second novel, is an exhilarating multicultural coming-of-age tale featuring Shalid, a sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll-loving Pakistani student torn between a love affair with a gorgeous free-spirited college professor and his desire to please his conservative Muslim community. In the story "My Son the Fanatic," which is also an award-winning film, Kureishi reveals the shifting values between a father and son, two generations of immigrants struggling between assimilation and separatist fundamentalism. Praised as an author who "fully entertains while addressing wickedly complex social issues" (San Francisco Chronicle), Kureishi infuses these deft and vivid stories with his love of non-conformity and his understanding of the ties that bind us to family and culture.
- GenresFiction
320 pages, Paperback
First published August 4, 2009
About the author
Hanif Kureishi
130 books1,166 followersHanif Kureishi is the author of novels (including The Buddha of Suburbia, The Black Album and Intimacy), story collections (Love in a Blue Time, Midnight All Day, The Body), plays (including Outskirts, Borderline and Sleep With Me), and screenplays (including My Beautiful Laundrette, My Son the Fanatic and Venus). Among his other publications are the collection of essays Dreaming and Scheming, The Word and the Bomb and the memoir My Ear at His Heart.
Kureishi was born in London to a Pakistani father and an English mother. His father, Rafiushan, was from a wealthy Madras family, most of whose members moved to Pakistan after the Partition of India in 1947. He came to Britain to study law but soon abandoned his studies. After meeting and marrying Kureishi’s mother Audrey, Rafiushan settled in Bromley, where Kureishi was born, and worked at the Pakistan Embassy.
Kureishi attended Bromley Technical High School where David Bowie had also been a pupil and after taking his A levels at a local sixth form college, he spent a year studying philosophy at Lancaster University before dropping out. Later he attended King’s College London and took a degree in philosophy. In 1985 he wrote My Beautiful Laundrette, a screenplay about a gay Pakistani-British boy growing up in 1980’s London for a film directed by Stephen Frears. It won the New York Film Critics Best Screenplay Award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay.
His book The Buddha of Suburbia (1990) won the Whitbread Award for the best first novel, and was also made into a BBC television series with a soundtrack by David Bowie. The next year, 1991, saw the release of the feature film entitled London Kills Me; a film written and directed Kureishi.
His novel Intimacy (1998) revolved around the story of a man leaving his wife and two young sons after feeling physically and emotionally rejected by his wife. This created certain controversy as Kureishi himself had recently left his wife and two young sons. It is assumed to be at least semi-autobiographical. In 2000/2001 the novel was loosely adapted to a movie Intimacy by Patrice Chéreau, which won two Bears at the Berlin Film Festival: a Golden Bear for Best Film, and a Silver Bear for Best Actress (Kerry Fox). It was controversial for its unreserved sex scenes. The book was translated into Persian by Niki Karimi in 2005.
He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2008 New Year Honours.
Kureishi is married and has a pair of twins and a younger son.
Kureishi was born in London to a Pakistani father and an English mother. His father, Rafiushan, was from a wealthy Madras family, most of whose members moved to Pakistan after the Partition of India in 1947. He came to Britain to study law but soon abandoned his studies. After meeting and marrying Kureishi’s mother Audrey, Rafiushan settled in Bromley, where Kureishi was born, and worked at the Pakistan Embassy.
Kureishi attended Bromley Technical High School where David Bowie had also been a pupil and after taking his A levels at a local sixth form college, he spent a year studying philosophy at Lancaster University before dropping out. Later he attended King’s College London and took a degree in philosophy. In 1985 he wrote My Beautiful Laundrette, a screenplay about a gay Pakistani-British boy growing up in 1980’s London for a film directed by Stephen Frears. It won the New York Film Critics Best Screenplay Award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay.
His book The Buddha of Suburbia (1990) won the Whitbread Award for the best first novel, and was also made into a BBC television series with a soundtrack by David Bowie. The next year, 1991, saw the release of the feature film entitled London Kills Me; a film written and directed Kureishi.
His novel Intimacy (1998) revolved around the story of a man leaving his wife and two young sons after feeling physically and emotionally rejected by his wife. This created certain controversy as Kureishi himself had recently left his wife and two young sons. It is assumed to be at least semi-autobiographical. In 2000/2001 the novel was loosely adapted to a movie Intimacy by Patrice Chéreau, which won two Bears at the Berlin Film Festival: a Golden Bear for Best Film, and a Silver Bear for Best Actress (Kerry Fox). It was controversial for its unreserved sex scenes. The book was translated into Persian by Niki Karimi in 2005.
He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2008 New Year Honours.
Kureishi is married and has a pair of twins and a younger son.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 19, 2025
Both the novel and the short story focus on he issue of generational ideological shifts among young Muslims with a South Asian background in Britain. The Black Album is, however, unfortunately a quite dull and didactic excercise focusing on a student at a low reputation college in Outer London who observes the radicalization of friends and family members before the background of the Rushdie affair while he himself indulges in an intensive sexual relation with his female lecturer, 20 years older than him but sharing his interest in literature and culture.
The novel does not tell an interesting story, instead the different characters primarily serve the purpose to exemplify different lifestyles and political attitudes.
"My Son the Fanatic" which has been adapted to the screen under the same title, deals with a irreligious taxi driver of Pakistani origin in a Northern town who observes how his son rejects his secular life style and turns to a radical Islamic group at a local mosque. Although he story is quite short it is stylistically more variegated than the novel, as the reader can follow the father's increasing awareness on the basis of inner monologue, as well as discussions with colleagues and one of his regular customers, a white prostitute to whom he has a platonic relationship.
The novel does not tell an interesting story, instead the different characters primarily serve the purpose to exemplify different lifestyles and political attitudes.
"My Son the Fanatic" which has been adapted to the screen under the same title, deals with a irreligious taxi driver of Pakistani origin in a Northern town who observes how his son rejects his secular life style and turns to a radical Islamic group at a local mosque. Although he story is quite short it is stylistically more variegated than the novel, as the reader can follow the father's increasing awareness on the basis of inner monologue, as well as discussions with colleagues and one of his regular customers, a white prostitute to whom he has a platonic relationship.
November 15, 2012
I could not get past page 101. The idea of the story - a dislocated young Pakistani man in 1990s London - is great. The main character, however, seemed to empheral like he was only a foil for the other characters around him who seemed more like types than people.
January 25, 2017
This is my second kureishi novel (the first being the Buddha of suburbia) and frankly I'm not a fan. The characters are flat, stereotypical and often downright stupid. I never understand what he's attempting to achieve with his exaggerated and often vulgar sex scenes and use of drugs/alcohol, and his obsession with older supposedly 'superior' white women is evident. Gave it two stars because the dialogue is decent and he picks up on some relevant race issues.
January 1, 2014
I think the fact that it was written in the UK 10 years ago made it a little confusing, especially after working in US counterterrorism post 9/11.
Not only was it a coming of age story, but it also had aspects of radicalization thrown in there. So, not the average coming of age story, but I did have to force my way through it at parts.
Not only was it a coming of age story, but it also had aspects of radicalization thrown in there. So, not the average coming of age story, but I did have to force my way through it at parts.
February 10, 2026
I feel like this book was really able to give me new perspectives on real life issues and situations that are unavailable to me. I am a white person, I don't really drink, or do drugs. The most discrimination I have faced is because I'm queer. But even growing up in quite a small town, I have been surrounded by the effects of situations like racism, religious discrimination, drug culture, etc. However, I have never been on the receiving end of it. Yes I can watch the news and see the extent the effects of these things are affecting everyone's lives, but I've never experienced the thing itself. This book I think really helped me get a glimpse of these situations from the people in them, pushing past my limited experiences.
November 4, 2023
only read my son the fanatic
June 11, 2025
Great plot except the ending.
June 21, 2013
Incredibly captivating read that might explain a lot more than Kureishi set out to explore, basically the divide between Islam and the West. The central character is someone caught in the middle of them, who yearns for acceptance in either one but finds himself leaning more and more to one over the other. The tipping point is the college professor who ends up using her expertise in something other than books to convince him that life as he's known it isn't so bad.
Of course, the author also builds the story around the fatwa issued over Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses (which is brilliant, the book I mean, by the way, one of the best I've ever read, though Kureishi's use of it is certainly brilliant, too). The title comes from a Prince album, though, the music artist the common link beyond books that brings Shahid and Deedee together. He's got a prized collection of Prince's works, which one of his apparent new Muslim friends is familair with from an earlier point in his life, before he chose unlike Shahid to devote himself to religion.
Shahid is confused, and the events that unfold around him don't make things any easier. The only flaw is that Kureishi sort of ends the book rather than concludes it, and part of this is that he might have realized same as I did that there was probably a better character to center the story on, the charismatic Riaz, nucleus of the Muslim sect at Shahid's college. Riaz is at a crossroads, too, either ready to become a terrorist or to become a TV personality who will voice his concerns to a much broader audience.
The problem is one of integration. As the short story included at the end of the book (and the accompanying interview with the author) explains, Islam is an attractive alternative to anyone who feels overwhelmed by the riddle of choice. Religion, not just Islam, is a way to be a part of something far bigger than yourself, and it has a way of asking for your loyalty without question. You simply accept all of it when you accept it at all. This causes any number of conflicts, especially when that religion then directs you to consider anyone who isn't a believer to be your enemy, even when it's within your own family.
None of this even needs to be applied to religion. It's the basic building block of society. It's the way we all crave social acceptance, and consciously or not give most of ourselves away in order to receive it. When you find acceptance, it becomes far easier to reject.
That sort of thing. So that's what Kureishi helps to explore, and it might be emphasized that he wrote these stories before 9/11, and so if you're still trying to understand the conflict he specifically explores, this is an excellent way to go. But it'll lead you down other paths. It's always a hard order to ask the writer to have gone further. And I'm being a little harsh in asking Kureishi that here, but that's the problem when you go pretty far, and your reader sees where you could have done more.
Of course, the author also builds the story around the fatwa issued over Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses (which is brilliant, the book I mean, by the way, one of the best I've ever read, though Kureishi's use of it is certainly brilliant, too). The title comes from a Prince album, though, the music artist the common link beyond books that brings Shahid and Deedee together. He's got a prized collection of Prince's works, which one of his apparent new Muslim friends is familair with from an earlier point in his life, before he chose unlike Shahid to devote himself to religion.
Shahid is confused, and the events that unfold around him don't make things any easier. The only flaw is that Kureishi sort of ends the book rather than concludes it, and part of this is that he might have realized same as I did that there was probably a better character to center the story on, the charismatic Riaz, nucleus of the Muslim sect at Shahid's college. Riaz is at a crossroads, too, either ready to become a terrorist or to become a TV personality who will voice his concerns to a much broader audience.
The problem is one of integration. As the short story included at the end of the book (and the accompanying interview with the author) explains, Islam is an attractive alternative to anyone who feels overwhelmed by the riddle of choice. Religion, not just Islam, is a way to be a part of something far bigger than yourself, and it has a way of asking for your loyalty without question. You simply accept all of it when you accept it at all. This causes any number of conflicts, especially when that religion then directs you to consider anyone who isn't a believer to be your enemy, even when it's within your own family.
None of this even needs to be applied to religion. It's the basic building block of society. It's the way we all crave social acceptance, and consciously or not give most of ourselves away in order to receive it. When you find acceptance, it becomes far easier to reject.
That sort of thing. So that's what Kureishi helps to explore, and it might be emphasized that he wrote these stories before 9/11, and so if you're still trying to understand the conflict he specifically explores, this is an excellent way to go. But it'll lead you down other paths. It's always a hard order to ask the writer to have gone further. And I'm being a little harsh in asking Kureishi that here, but that's the problem when you go pretty far, and your reader sees where you could have done more.
January 13, 2012
Is the liberalism that claims to fight the subjugation of others truly a colonial mentality that suppresses ethnic identity when it clashes with liberal ideas? "Equality for everyone, as long as we exist within 'reasonable' boundaries of similarness"? That's the question posed by this text when the religions and ethnic identity's of Shahid, a Pakistani Muslim living in Britain, clashes with his own liberal ideals,love of literature, and freedom of expression. The story also includes a fantastic romance between Shahid and his professor Deedee, however the strength of the text is in analyzing this apparent contradiction of liberalism which advocates for the rights of everyone but excludes certain practices and ideologies that may be essential for maintaining and asserting ethnic identity. The commentary on this issue is fully featured and dense, leaning towards modern western liberal ideas but not completely vindicating them for this oversight of exclusion. Kureishi doesn't endorse religious fundamentalism, but he certainly seems to respect the right of individuals to express their ethnic identity as they see fit. The text reflects that both well-meaning western liberalism and positive ethnic expression can go wrong if they're intolerant and violent, and the story shows the slippery slope that exists where both mentalities can lead to ruin.
November 17, 2016
I actually only read "My son the fanatic", but I think it counts ;-)
It's a gripping shortstory written from the perspective of a Pakistani father who is forced to watch his son become very religious if not fundamentalist.
I am going to teach the story at my school and am really excited to see what my students think of it.
It's a gripping shortstory written from the perspective of a Pakistani father who is forced to watch his son become very religious if not fundamentalist.
I am going to teach the story at my school and am really excited to see what my students think of it.
July 10, 2012
I think it was written by someone who does not speak english very well... wrote very formal and dry... and the characters were sp typical extremists that it seemed the author just made up the characters based on what a person imagines in their head as an Islamic extremist.
June 7, 2016
The protagonists revel in decadence as if it were religion. I'm fine with a critique of religious fanaticism and its development as part of the postmodern condition, but I would like to see more balance than polarity. The short story is stronger than the novel in all these regards.
July 10, 2012
I really liked this book. I will write a review of it soon.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews