Who is popular today?

The writer’s new novel is about white Americans who wake up dark-skinned. He talks about resisting categorisation, his allergy to conflict between cultures and the trouble with dystopiasThe writer Mohsin Hamid, who turned 50 this month, divides his time between Lahore, New York and London. He has worked as a management consultant and as chief storytelling officer for the advertising agency Wolff Olins. His second novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, told in the voice of a western-educated jihadi, sold 1m copies and was shortlisted for the Booker prize. His fourth novel, Exit West, a fable about migration and immigration, was also Booker shortlisted. His new novel, The Last White Man, is about a white American who wakes up one morning to discover he has turned a “deep and undeniable brown”. Over the course of the novel, more and more white people are similarly transformed.You’ve talked a few times about the importance of urgency in writing, saying “only write if you need to write”. What was the urgency in telling this particular story at this moment?I think of myself as a thoroughly hybridised human being. I have lived in three countries for much of my life – Pakistan, the US and the UK – and someone like me has a difficult time thinking of their identity as just one thing. So the current impulse towards purity, towards identifying the “true people” of different countries or religions, of being “British” or “white American” or “Muslim” is fundamentally at odds with who I am. I wanted to write a book about that “sorting” mechanism, the way in which we put ourselves into groups. Because I think that the impulse to group identity is becoming overwhelming – and threatening to us all.The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid is published by Hamish Hamilton (£12.99). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may applyJoin Mohsin Hamid for a Guardian Live online event on 10 August, where he will discuss The Last White Man with Today in Focus host Nosheen Iqbal. Book here Continue reading...