These are some of the questions Mohsin Hamid’s chiselled post 9/11 novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, raises. It’s set at a café table in Lahore and the dramatic possibilities are endless as a bearded Pakistani man strikes up a conversation with an American stranger. The bias is clear but one is glued to this side of the story too — the circumstances that force Changez, a Princeton graduate, change what he thinks of America.

Like Changez, Kari, the eponymous protagonist of Amruta Patil’s debut graphic novel, is alienated in a city where she tries to breathe as little as she can to “prevent smog city from choking me”.
Sometimes, people don’t lose hope in the face of the harshest reality as Nemirovsky’s final letters home illlustrate: “… I shower my darling daughters with kisses…. If you can send me anything, I think my second pair of glasses are in the other suitcase…. Books please, and also if possible a bit of salted butter.” Then again, she scribbles in pencil: “My dearest love, my cherished children. I think we are leaving today. Courage and hope. May God help us all.” But no one helped Nemirovsky — and no one’s helping others still fighting bias and prejudice. Think of the restless world we live in today and the Nemirovsky story is still unfolding.