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Hari Kunzru Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Hari Kunzru

Hari Kunzru

How to pronounce Hari Kunzru: HAR-ee KUNE-zroo

Hari Kunzru Biography

Hari Kunzru is the author of seven novels, Red Pill, White Tears, Gods Without Men, My Revolutions, Transmission, The Impressionist and Blue Ruin. He is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books and writes the "Easy Chair" column for Harper's Magazine. He is an Honorary Fellow of Wadham College Oxford, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and has been a Cullman Fellow at the New York Public Library, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a Fellow of the American Academy in Berlin. He teaches in the Creative Writing Program at New York University and is the host of the podcast Into the Zone, from Pushkin Industries. He lives in Brooklyn.

Hari Kunzru's website

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Interview

Hari Kunzru discusses his first novel, The Impressionist, a black comedy about race and identity, that partially developed from his own experience as a child of an Indian father and English mother.

Described by The Observer as 'The most eagerly awaited British debut of 2002,' Hari Kunzru's The Impressionist is an epic tale of adventure and discovery. Here, we asked Hari about inspiration, identity and the cultural legacy of the British Empire.

How would you describe the The Impressionist?
The Impressionist is a black comedy about race and identity. It goes from India to England to Paris to Africa following one character, Pran, who assumes a great deal of different identities and never quite fits into any of them.

Where did the idea for the book come from?
Part of the idea came from my own experience of being the child of an Indian father and an English mother. I've grown up in England and feel pretty English in my upbringing, but there's always been an aspect of my experience that hasn't quite fitted. I wanted to write something about a character like that, only I've reversed the polarities in a way. Pran is the child of an English father and an Indian mother and I've set the book at a time (the 1920s) - maybe the last time - when the Empire really mattered. It's at a crisis point in the story of the British Empire, which of course is kind of why I m here. My father would never have come to Britain if ...

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Books by this Author

Books by Hari Kunzru at BookBrowse
Blue Ruin jacket Red Pill jacket White Tears jacket Gods Without Men jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Hari Kunzru but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • David   Hopen

    David Hopen

    David Hopen is from Hollywood, Florida. He graduated from Yale College and earned his master's degree from the University of Oxford. The Orchard is his debut novel. (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Gods Without Men

    Try:
    The Orchard
    by David Hopen

  • Rachel Cusk

    Rachel Cusk

    Rachel Cusk is the author of Second Place, the Outline trilogy, the memoirs A Life's Work and Aftermath, and several other works of fiction and nonfiction. She is a Guggenheim Fellow. She lives in Paris. (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Blue Ruin

    Try:
    Second Place
    by Rachel Cusk

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