A Case of Exploding Mangoes

Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize Intrigue and subterfuge combine with misstep and luck in this darkly comic debut about love, betrayal, tyranny, family, and a conspiracy trying its damnedest to happen. Ali Shigri, Pakistan Air Force pilot and Silent Drill Commander of the Fury Squadron, is on a mission to avenge his father's mysterious death, which was called a suicide by the government. Ali's target is none other than General Zia ul-Haq, the Pakistani dictator. Enlisting a rag-tag group of conspirators, including his colognebathed roommate, a hash-smoking American lieutenant, and a mango-besotted crow, Ali sets an elaborate plan in motion. There's only one problem: the line of would-be assassins out for Zia is longer than he could have possibly known. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Mohammed Hanif runs the Urdu service of the BBC's World Service. He was in the Pakistani Air Force for seven years, and then a journalist in Pakistan, where he is also known as a playwright. He won the Board of Examiners top prize at the University of East Anglia this year for an excerpt from A Case of Exploding Mangoes, which is his first novel.