Soniah Kamal Recommends

“I first read Moghul Buffet by Cheryl Benard eight years ago and I have yet to come across a novel that has made me laugh so hard,” Kamal says. “It’s part detective story, part social satire, and part bildungsroman. There’s a lusty Muslim cleric and a gay Indian actor, there’s an American businessman convinced he’s out to be murdered and an American woman married to a Pakistani feudal lord, there’s a bunch of future Talibans involved at the moment in doing good and a policeman who constantly misinterprets clues: how all these characters come together is ingenious and delightful. I read this at least once a year simply because it’s one of the best stories around.”

Soniah Kamal‘s short stories have been published in literary magazines and anthologized in the US, Canada, Pakistan and India. Her debut novel An Isolated Incident is scheduled for release with Penguin in the fall. She also blogs at drunkonink.