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# Zia Haider Rahman

In the Light of What We Know

## Sitemaps

- [XML Sitemap](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website.

## Posts

- [Dhaka University, "Land of Dead Ideas"](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/video-dhaka-university/) - December 3, 2014
- [Selected Media](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/selected-media/) - BBC Radio 4, A Point of View: In Praise of Mathematics BBC Radio 4, A Point of View: A Word of Advice BBC Radio 4, A Point of View: Few Good Trade-Offs (See also 'No Return to the Old Dispensation'. Roger Cohen, New York Times) BBC Radio 4: A Picture Held Us Captive (29 min)
- [Alex Preston, The Observer, UK](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/observer-uk/) - “[E]ncyclopedic in its reach and depth, dazzling in its erudition…In the Light of What We Know is an extraordinary meditation on the limits and uses of human knowledge, a heartbreaking love story and a gripping account of one man's psychological disintegration. This is the novel I'd hoped Jonathan Franzen's Freedom would be (but wasn't)—an exploration of
- [](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/bio/) - You can find out more about the author here. Twitter Please direct messages to Sarah Chalfant or Andrew Wylie. Press Kit
- [Hart](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/hart/) - "[A] great story...I was totally intoxicated by this work...Over 600 incredible pages." Maarten 't HartBoekhandel De Kler
- [James Wood, The New Yorker](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/james-wood-the-new-yorker/) - “A dazzling debut...Astonishingly achieved...Isn’t this kind of thinking—worldly and personal, abstract and concrete, essayistic and dramatic—exactly what the novel is for? How it justifies itself as a form? In the Light of What We Know is what Salman Rushdie once called an ‘everything novel.’ It is wide-armed, hospitable, disputatious, worldly, cerebral. Ideas and provocations abound
- [Guardian Empire](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/guardian-empire/) - “It’s hard not to write in superlatives of this extraordinary novel; it combines great intelligence (digressions on mathematics and philosophy) with a global story of love, alienation and belonging which moves vividly between South Kensington, the tiny excruciating details of Oxford racism and snobbery to the breathtaking drama of a catastrophic train crash in Bangladesh
- [Vogue, US](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/vogue-us/) - “a virtuoso debut” … “gorgeously written” Megan O’Grady Vogue
- [Press Kit](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/press-kit/) - High resolution photos Representation: Sarah Chalfant, schalfant@wylieagency.co.uk; Andrew Wylie, awylie@wylieagency.com Zia Haider Rahman (ˈziə ˈhaɪdər ˈrɑːmən) is an author, broadcaster, builder and carpenter. He was born in a village in Bangladesh and moved to England with his family, living first in a squat before being housed in a council estate (social housing). After attending a
- [Joyce Carol Oates, The New York Review of Books](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/joyce-carol-oates-the-new-york-review-of-books/) - "Remarkable...an adventure story of sorts, echoing not only the canonical Heart of Darkness but F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby...the novels of dislocation and inquiry of Graham Greene and W.G. Sebald, and...the spy novels of John le Carré...a novel of ideas, a compendium of epiphanies, paradoxes, and riddles...one is moved to think of Thomas Mann’s
- [New York Times](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/new-york-times/) - “[a] brilliant novel…I was surprised it didn’t explode in my hands.” Amitava Kumar The New York Times Book Review
- [Liberation (Next)](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/liberation-next/) - "... livre magnifique, qui se lit avec reconnaissance et bonheur, tant l’auteur, dont c’est le premier roman - très autobiographique - y fait preuve de verve, d’intelligence, de rage et d’un humour tout britannique. Grand lecteur, Zia Haider Rahman a placé en exergue de chaque chapitre des citations formidables de ses livres de chevet, Sebald,
- [The New Yorker, Rebecca Mead](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/the-new-yorker-rebecca-mead/) - "I was captivated by In the Light of What We Know, which I’ve been urging on friends since reading it last summer. A novel that is concerned with friendship, geopolitics, math, and science, it’s talky and intellectual, while also unfolding a riveting drama: a deeply satisfying book." “Remarkable...a 21st century novel written with the ambition of
- [Il Sole](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/il-sole/) - "La storia della letteratura è piena di biografie più intricate della sua, ma pochi autori sono riusciti a ottenere un canto della non appartenenza più dolente e allo stesso tempo arrabbiato di questo, adeguandolo perfettamente ai tempi: c'è un momento in cui l'emarginazione smette di essere una questione di etnia e torna a essere una
- [LeMonde](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/lemonde/) - "Faire se toucher des mondes distincts, « bâtir des arches entre des piles », voilà qui semble être le dessein ultime de son grand et puissant roman. Un livre truffé de savoirs divers mais finalement tout entier basé sur le principe d’incertitude. Ou ­d’incomplétude. Et visant à créer le doute chez le lecteur. Une accumulation
- [El Correo Gallego](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/el-correo-gallego/) - "una de las grandes novelas de nuestro tiempo" El Correo Gallego, Spain
- [Croix](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/croix/) - "Les fureurs de l'univers se tressent, dans un récit d'une intelligence haletante, avec le sourire qui transforme un visage, les enfants comme «horizon commun d'amour et d'inquiétude »pour un couple, les djinns et les anges, ou encore l'isolement, le déracinement et l'ostracisme : « Un exilé, dit Zafar, est un réfugié avec une bibliothèque.» Rebondissant
- [inrockuptibles](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/inrockuptibles/) - "The total novel of our contemporary crises...To plunge into this text, full of digressions yet beautifully maintained, is to embark on a journey through time, space, and inside yourself...Gradually, the book moves into Proustian writing--subtle, intoxicating, deeply melancholy...Zia Haider Rahman has written a total novel, highly controlled and consistent, a variation on power and freedom, remembrance and
- [Louise Adler, Sydney Morning Herald](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/louise-adler-sydney-morning-herald-and-the-age/) - “My faith in fiction has been restored. Zia Haider Rahman's debut novel, In the Light of What We Know, is a tour de force…Rahman writes brilliantly and hilariously about British class-consciousness…The resultant novel is a satisfyingly and richly argumentative novel…This year isn't over but In the Light of What We Know is my international book of 2014. It
- [William Nicholson](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/william-nicholson/) - “[O]n almost every page there was a passage that intrigued me, and made me think something I hadn’t thought before...Is it ‘the first truly great book of the new century’, as one reader claims on the cover? Well, I can’t think of much competition.” William Nicholson Screenwriter ("The Gladiator"), Playwright, Novelist
- [NYT-Ari](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/nyt-ari/) - “I can open this book to any page and find a passage that I want to read aloud to the person next to me. It’s about mathematics, and war, and finance, and relationships, and everything else in the world.” Ari Shapiro The New York Times
- [Telegraph](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/telegraph/) - “...the year’s most interesting first novel, gobbling up ideas and talking points...with the avidity of a combine harvester.” Tim Martin Daily Telegraph, UK Best fiction 2014
- [The Observer](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/the-guardian/) - "...dazzling...In the Light of What We Know is what Henry James called a “large, loose, baggy monster” – but for our century" Philip French The Observer, UK Best Books 2014
- [GQ](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/gq/) - “spectacular...a modern-day Gatsby story and one of the first truly successful fictional reckonings with the financial crisis, as well as a subtle analysis of the British immigrant experience in the current fraught international climate” Olivia Cole GQ
- [Guardian, UK](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/guardian-uk/) - “The book's depth is utterly absorbing, its stories as real in their effect as they are illusory…a huge achievement” Alexandra Clark The Guardian
- [Slate](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/slate/) - "a plaintive and moving portrait of male friendship and alienation" Willa Paskin Slate Best Books 2014
- [Sandipan Deb, Mint-Wall Street Journal India](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/sandipan-deb-mint-wall-street-journal-india/) - "the finest book written by an Indian subcontinent-origin author”…“a stunning piece of literature" Sandipan Deb Wall Street Journal India/Mint
- [Intelligent Life, The Economist](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/intelligent-life-the-economist/) - “[An] astonishing debut…its 497 pages are an intellectual banquet. The ingredients range from philosophy, religion and mathematics to international aid, high finance and carpentry. But the question at its heart is simple: how does knowledge relate to wisdom, happiness and truth? And the story, which ranges from Islamabad to Wall Street and from 9/11 to
- [Trouw](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/trouw/) - "Brilliant debut on 'everything that defines our time': mathematics, philosophy, exile, war, money, speculation, greed, geopolitics, Islamic terrorism, Western paternalism and financial crisis." Trouw Netherlands
- [Italian cover](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/italian-cover/)
- [Bengali cover](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/bengali-cover/)
- [Greek cover](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/greek-cover/)
- [FR cover 2](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/fr-cover-2/)
- [Elizabeth Buchan, Daily Mail, UK](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/daily-mail-uk/) - “sprawling, expansive meditation…Fascinating and truly impressive.” Elizabeth Buchan Daily Mail, UK
- [The Times, UK](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/the-times-uk/) - “the writing is superb” Kate Saunders The Times, UK
- [Aditya Sinha, Timeout Delhi](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/aditya-sinha-timeout-delhi/) - “far above what is churned out in the name of literary fiction these days.” Aditya Sinha Timeout Delhi
- [NYT Taylor](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/nyt-taylor/) - “[an] extraordinary novel” Ihsan Taylor The New York Times
- [Focus](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/focus/) - "Man fühlt sich durchaus in einem Zauberberg, wenn dieser Romanheld mit der eigenen Geschichte erzählt, wie fundamentale Triebkräfte zwischen Liebeswunsch und Rachsucht im Dschungel von postmodern globalisiertem Leben, Wissen und Denken ihren Weg finden und womöglich explodieren." Bild and Focus.de
- [Transfuge](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/transfuge/) - "Transformant sa singulière expérience en récit d’un homme qui a consacré son existence à se dissimuler, l’écrivain n’a pas le romantisme de Gatsby mais la lucide connaissance des classes supérieures de Fitzgerald. Son amertume nourrit un brillant réquisitoire romanesque sur l’impuissance des élites à accueillir la singularité d’un Haider Rahman." Oriane Jeancourt Galignani Transfuge
- [Dernier Livre](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/dernier-livre/) - "Roman épistémologique à plus d’un titre, puisqu’il explore les systèmes sociaux, économiques, scientifiques, géopolitiques, littéraires, À la lumière de ce que nous savons est une magnifique ouverture au monde, aux théories, aux sciences. Imposante œuvre littéraire, ce premier roman, intelligent et sensible mais aussi émouvant et captivant est assurément une grande réussite. Tourner la première
- [Télérama](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/telerama/) - "La barre est haut placée, mais l'intelligence et le talent de Zia Haider Rahman sont à la mesure de ses prétentions, et A la lumière de ce que nous savons est bel et bien un roman—le premier de son auteur—spectaculairement hors du commun, au formidable dessein...Auscultant l'intimité de l'indi­vidu autant que les phénomènes collectifs, rivé
- [Matricule](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/matricule/) - "Une brillante évocation des enjeux de notre société contemporaine...La littérature, l'Histoire et les mathématiques se rencontrent, et font d'À la lumière de ce que nous savons une somme tout à la fois épique, anthropologique et savante." Camille Cloarec Matricule des Anges
- [Libération](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/liberation/) - "Dans son magistral premier roman, Zia Haider Rahman fait la somme de ses mondes en crise...À la lumière de ce que nous savons frappe par la force que dégagent son ironie et sa colère, car avant de tresser des lauriers à l’harmonie..." Virginie Bloch-Lainé Libération
- [LExpress](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/lexpress/) - "...l’ambition et l'intelligence de Rahman montrent déjà la naissance d'un grand talent, assorti d'une haute idée de la littérature." Baptiste Liger L'Express / Lire
- [Lamia Karim, New Age, Bangladesh](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/lamia-karim-new-age-bangladesh/) - “…a literary masterpiece…a magisterial sweep of the landscape of the 21st century that is characterised by war, migration, and rootlessness.” Lamia Karim New Age, Bangladesh
- [Library Journal Starred Review](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/library-journal-starred-review-2/) - “The author’s fascination with…the universe of ideas is contagious, and enriches the complex narrative about how we know the reality around us…[T]his ambitious debut novel has considerable depth and scope.” Library Journal Starred Review
- [David Grylls, Sunday Times, UK](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/sunday-times-uk/) - “a dizzying voyage that touches on many of the key issues of our time…an extraordinary achievement…the book overflows with sparkling essays on free will, the perception of time, the nature of memory, maps, flags, etymology and the axioms of mathematics…As a meditation on the penalties of exile, the need for roots and the ways in
- [Anvar Alikhan, Outlook, India](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/anvar-alikhan-outlook-india/) - “a novel of rare beauty and power…a hugely ambitious work, which could so easily have gone wrong, but Rahman’s towering imagination, combined with his elegant, almost mathematically precise prose, help him pull it off with enviable ease.” Anvar Alikhan Outlook, India
- [Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/wall-street-journal/) - “[A] splendidly enterprising debut…highlights the uncertainty and incoherence uniting a world in which, at a moment, markets can crash and occupied countries can plummet into chaos…a trenchant attempt to represent the scope of all that remains unknown and uncontrollable” Sam Sacks Wall Street Journal
- [Paul Overby, Pittsburg Post-Gazette](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/pittsburg-post-gazette/) - “[A] sweeping and brilliant tale…Rahman's rich and complex debut novel is like [a] great meal…In the Light of What We Know may be the best meal you eat this year. [Rahman’s] insights—whether related to Pakistan-India enmity, Ivy-League attitude or non-governmental organizations' idealism—were right on target, [his] characters' experiences plausible and compelling, and [his] grasp of the
- [S Prasannarajan, Open Magazine, India](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/s-prasannarajan-open-magazine-india/) - “a ground-breaking work of staggering genius…its capacity to accommodate ideas and arguments matches the best of the big, boisterous Russian novels, without its emotional excesses. It restores, with a confidence rarely seen in a first novelist, the majesty of an art form that best tells the history of man.” S Prasannarajan Open Magazine, India
- [Richard McCann, author of Mother of Sorrows](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/richard-mccann-author-of-mother-of-sorrows/) - “Here it is, the vast and brilliant debut novel of our time for which readers have been waiting…[It is] deeply penetrating and profoundly intimate, as if made by a muralist whose heart belongs to the details. In the Light of What We Know is a novel of startling vision…Who’s the true heir to such greats as George
- [Kaveree Bamzai, India Today](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/kaveree-bamzai-india-today/) - “extraordinary…It is no surprise that Rahman's book is earning rave reviews, gathering much acclaim as it sweeps readers off their feet with its scope and sensibility…It is far away from the colonial narrative of Afghanistan, which makes it a committed political novel if ever there was one.” Kaveree Bamzai India Today
- [Mike Fischer, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/milwaukee-journal-sentinel/) - “[A] sprawling and thrillingly ambitious debut novel…A cross between Herman Melville and David Foster Wallace as refracted through Graham Greene, In the Light of What We Know offers 500 pages of self-described "digressions" and "tangents" involving bracing, sometimes mind-blowing discussions of high math, theoretical physics, cognitive science, Central Asian politics, the English class system, the bloody
- [Nicholas Mancusi, Daily Beast](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/daily-beast/) - “[I]t is immediately apparent that one is dealing with a work of major ambition…[T]he main reason to get excited over Rahman’s emerging presence as a writer are his sentences, ramifying and unraveling to bring in more and more ideas between full-stops in a way that few still alive can command.” Nicholas Mancusi Daily Beast
- [Guardian Reader 1](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/guardian-reader-1/) - "impressed and nourished...a masterly and expansive novel" Charles Boardman The Guardian Readers' Books of the Year 2014
- [Edmund Gordon, Times Literary Supplement, UK](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/times-literary-supplement-uk/) - “Rahman's attentiveness to the social implications of knowing things is a constant source of pleasure…[It] is, among many other things, a beautiful, anguished tirade against narrowness and complacency.” Edmund Gordon Times Literary Supplement
- [NPR](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/npr/) - "...dazzling...the writing shimmers." Mark Katkov NPR Great Reads 2014
- [Kevin Power, Sunday Business Post, Ireland](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/sunday-business-post-ireland/) - “Rahman’s intellectual range is dazzling. His novelistic intelligence is assured…A page-turning literary novel that tackles the big questions of our present crisis unashamedly, with supreme narrative skill. This, as Henry James might say, is the right real thing…In the Light of What We Know is an indispensable book, almost certainly, in fact, a masterpiece.” Kevin Power
- [CZ Cover](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/cz-cover/)
- [FR cover](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/fr-cover/)
- [DE Cover](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/de-cover/)
- [PT cover](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/pt-cover/)
- [NL cover](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/nl-cover/)
- [SensCritique](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/senscritique/) - "Coup de coeur de l'année pour le formidable et ambitieux A la lumière de ce que nous savons" Guillaume Launay SensCritique
- [Revista Sabado](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/revista-sabado/) - "À Luz do que Sabemos é o retrato do mundo pós-11/9 nas suas formas mais evidentes: Iluminismo do sector financeiro, terrorismo, povos expatriados. A imagem de Gödel e Einstein a caminharem no terreno de uma quinta americana é um exemplo do desenraizamento que o livro explora em todos os matizes. De Zafar, o protagonista, Rahman
- [Revista de Letras](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/revista-de-letras/) - "A la luz de lo que sabemos es novela que se desparrama, crece por los bordes, reescribe sus esquinas, arranca y da marcha atrás. El estilo es serio, cuidado, sin afectaciones. Una ambiciosa primera novela de tipo filosófico y de denuncia social, pero a ratos thriller de las corruptelas de guerra y las financieras, que
- [GuardianCurry](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/guardiancurry/) - "Rahman’s magisterial novel, which bulges with humanity and big ideas, was my favourite read of the year...[It] drills deeply and rewardingly into the grand themes of life: meaning, identity, loyalty, faith and family." Stephen Curry The Guardian
- [Le Devoir](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/le-devoir/) - "Explorant les destins parallèles de deux amis dans la quarantaine, le roman est aussi un véritable festin pour l’intelligence. Un livre foisonnant et stimulant qui cherche d’un bout à l’autre à nouer ensemble des savoirs et des codes disparates pour « élaborer une vision du monde plurielle et complexe ». Des débuts littéraires impressionnants..." Christian
- [ES cover](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/es-cover/)
- [Keith Law](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/keith-law/) - "one of the most intellectual, erudite, epic...one of the best novels I've ever read ... dialogue of a caliber I’ve scarcely seen in contemporary or classic fiction. It’s a tour de force of a novel, an arduous read that simultaneously pays homage to the western canon while upending it entirely from its very non-western vantage point." Keith
- [Michael Cathcart, ABC](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/michael-cathcart-abc/) - "A stunningly good novel. A pure joy. Lucid, funny, philosophical, and very, very smart ... and, I have to tell you, it's one of my all-time top reads." Michael Cathcart Books and Arts, ABC Radio National
- [DWDD](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/dwdd/) - "This is the Great American Novel...[Rahman] is one of the great writers of our time." "This book proves that the novel is not dead but thriving and vital." "Everyone should take a week off in order to read this book." DWDD Book Panelists, Netherlands
- [NewIndianExpress](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/newindianexpress/) - "a masterpiece...This is essential reading." The New Indian Express
- [Libertehebdo](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/libertehebdo/) - "His words, in sudden appearance or touch, have an exploratory power and accuracy combined with an illuminating fluidity." Liberté Hebdo (Freedom Weekly)
- [La Vie](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/la-vie/) - "Dense et exigeant, aussi épique que cérébral, son roman force l'admiration par son ambition." Anne Berthod La Vie
- [pagelibraires](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/pagelibraires/) - "Un roman qui interroge la perception que nous avons des autres et de nous-mêmes, et qui met superbement en éveil notre soif de compréhension du monde." Charléne Busalli Page, Les Livres Par Les Libraires
- [Diacritik](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/diacritik/) - "La dernière page tournée, le lecteur n’a qu’une certitude : il vient de découvrir un écrivain majeur (et ce n’est que son premier roman !), et, malgré le plaisir extraordinaire pris tout au long de sa lecture, malgré son extrême limpidité, une très grande partie de ce roman lui a sans doute échappé, tant il
- [mediapart](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/mediapart/) - "Dans l’accumulation des histoires et des savoirs, se dessine une carte riche et délibérément lacunaire de notre monde, de notre présent : ce temps d’après – après la crise des subprimes, post-post-11-Septembre, ce temps d’avant –, quand tout est pris dans une confusion inquiète, pas encore éclairé par l’effroi d’un attentat en Afghanistan ou ailleurs
- [Aspen](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/aspen/) - "A philosophical novel with a page-turning contemporary plot embracing the financial crisis of 2008, the rebuilding of Afghanistan, and the depths of love, friendship, and memory. This is an absorbing first novel that will make you think twice about what we know and what we love." Aspen Institute Best Books 2015
- [Literary Review](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/literary-review/) - “Deeply insightful and limitlessly quotable, this is the kind of book every novelist dreams of writing and no first-timer should ever have had the chutzpah to attempt. As Rahman’s own narrator says: ‘nothing in his account was out of place, nothing extraneous.’” A S H Smyth The Literary Review
- [Woodcock](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/woodcock/) - "Rahman's book is a mighty tome extending to nearly 500 pages, and dealing with loss and rediscovery and the limits of our experience and understanding of love, relationships, science and war. His writing is powerful and passionate and the full scope of his ideas takes us on a great journey of discovery." Tony Woodcock Huffington
- [Barnes & Noble, a Discover Great New Writers selection](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/barnes-noble-a-discover-great-new-writers-selection/) - “a page-turning tale of exile, intrigue and the price of friendship.” Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection
- [Guardian Reader 2](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/guardian-reader-2/) - "a hugely accomplished first novel...I was stunned by its brilliance and range" Kate Lathem The Guardian Readers' Books of the Year 2014
- [Kirkus Best Books](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/kirkus-best-books/) - "renewed evidence that some of the most interesting writing in English is coming from the edges of old empires" Kirkus Best Fiction 2014
- [Open Magazine Editor](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/open-magazine-editor/) - "floats effortlessly in the history of the present...A majestic debut" S Prasannarajan Open Magazine Editor's Choice 2014
- [Huff Post](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/huff-post/) - "War can divide friends. But then again, so can peace and all that falls between, the spaces inhabited by this ambitious, elegiac debut novel..." Huffington Post Books to Sweep You Off Your Feet 2014
- [Observer](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/guardian/) - "...an astonishing novel – sad, angry and beautifully told" Alex Preston The Observer, UK Best Books 2014
- [Open Best Books](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/open-best-books/) - "a long overdue reminder of how fiction can convey essential truths about the human condition" Mini Kapoor Open Magazine Favorite Books 2014
- [Foyles](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/foyles/) - "fizzes and burns like potassium dropped into water" Jonathan Ruppin Foyles Best Books 2014
- [Society of Scholarly Publishing US](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/society-of-scholarly-publishing-us/) - "if you only read one book for the holidays, you should read this one...a masterpiece...sad, elegant, uplifting, restless and deep." Robert Harington Society of Scholarly Publishing Best Books 2014
- [TLS](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/tls/) - "brilliantly articulated with an acerbic irony and bursting literary allusiveness" Jonathan Benthall Times Literary Supplement Best Books 2014
- [FT](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/ft/) - "Dazzling in its sweep and depth, Rahman’s debut novel moves seamlessly from Kabul to Oxford to New York to Islamabad. Its Bangladesh-born author — an investment banker turned human rights lawyer — deftly captures the contemporary realities of each setting. Topics touched upon include the global economic collapse, terrorism, exile and immigration, inequality and class,
- [Kellaway](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/kellaway/) - "This formidable novel unpacks friendship, betrayal, unknowability – and includes an astute take on Englishness, on class, on mathematical theory, human rights, and whether people can trust their own perception of the world." Kate Kellaway The Observer, UK
- [Nick Higham, BBC TV](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/nick-higham-bbc-radio/) - “One of the clearest descriptions I’ve ever read of the toxic financial instruments that caused the 2008 financial crash” Nick Higham BBC TV
- [AlgemeenDagblad](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/algemeendagblad/) - "Niet voor niets komt de Onvolledigheidsstelling van de wiskundige Kurt Gödel al vrij vroeg in het boek aan de orde. De stelling lijkt voor Zafar op veel meer dan alleen zijn wiskundige belangstelling invloed gehad te hebben. Met het verhaal van zijn ooit zo trouwe vriend Zafar neemt de naamloze verteller in In het licht
- [Anees Salim](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/vbagh/) - "[The author] sketches astoundingly lucid pictures of several worlds and many lives. In the Light of What We Know is nothing short of a modern classic and Zia Haider Rahman is the kind of raconteur we all have been waiting for." Anees Salim author of Vanity Bagh
- [Ceridwen Dovey, author of Blood Kin](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/ceridwen-dovey-author-of-blood-kin/) - “Brilliant and heartbreaking, In the Light of What We Know is the first truly great book of the new century.” Ceridwen Dovey author of Blood Kin
- [Madeleine Thien, New Canadian Media](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/madeleine-thien-new-canadian-media/) - “a great work, one of the most extraordinary novels I have ever read.” Madeleine Thien New Canadian Media
- [Norman Rush, author of Mating and Subtle Bodies](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/norman-rush-author-of-mating-and-subtle-bodies/) - “This formidable and compelling novel offers the reader pleasures not often found in the same venue. Its boldness in engaging elements of our contemporary crisis is bracing. In presenting his cast of characters, Rahman supplies close readings of class, mores, and manners that are extraordinary. And throughout, he sustains an almost subliminal resonance with the
- [De Standaard](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/de-standaard/) - "An impressive debut. This is a story of redemption, release from false expectation, from illusions and assumptions. A rare confrontation with the naked truth, that is usually only found in a therapeutic environment and that is permanently unstable … It’s a book full of knowledge. But mostly it’s a book that makes us see the
- [Gelderlander](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/gelderlander/) - "Een debuut dat door het brede spectrum aan verteltechnieken, van emotiobeel tot zakelijk en van essayistisch tot dramatisch, laat zien welk een grandioos speelveld de romanvorm biedt." De Gelderlander, Netherlands
- [Petra](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/petra/) - "Ben er helemaal van in de ban. Magisch!!" Petra van Dalen Boekhandel Praamstra
- [UK paperback cover](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/uk-paperback-cover/)
- [US Paperback Cover](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/us-paperback-cover/)
- [Readings, Australia](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/readings-australia/) - "Both sophisticated and tender, In the Light of What We Know is an intricate account of the audacity of world-making and a eulogy to our steadfast desire to understand and be understood." Lucy Van Readings, Australia
- [Easterly](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/easterly/) - "The best novel of 2014 is also the best development-related novel." William Easterly Professor of Economics, New York University, and Co-Director of NYU’s Development Research Institute
- [Atlantic](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/atlantic/) - "A great novel...reminded me of Conrad...the contemplative weave of politics and fiction. This ambitious first novel seems to pack into it everything the author knows...and yet it is never show-offy. The characters’ complicated lives, which are at the foreground of the book, persuasively justify everything." Wendy Lesser The Atlantic
- [Metro](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/metro/) - “In the Light of What We Know is like that: full to bursting with ideas and bound together with a precocious literary skill...It's a splendid read.” Simon Wilson Metro Magazine, New Zealand
- [Business Standard](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/business-standard/) - "...quite possibly the best South Asian novel of the last 10 years...If there’s one novel that you should read from 2014, it’s In the Light of What We Know. Prepare to be floored by its vertigo-inducing magnificence." J Jagannath Business Standard
- [Indian Express](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/indian-express/) - "[an] outstanding novel that reveals yet more of its brilliance upon each reading" Mini Kapoor The Indian Express
- [South China](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/south-china/) - "5 stars...a 497-page tour de force" Ajay Singh South China Morning Post
- [Malcolm Forbes, National](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/malcolm-forbes-national/) - “epic in scale and reach, and pulsing with life.” Malcolm Forbes The National, UAE
- [Kirkus Starred Review](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/kirkus-starred-review/) - "a quiet, philosophical novel of ideas, a meditation on memory, friendship and trust...Beautifully written” Kirkus Review, Starred
- [Sajid H. Amit, Dhaka Tribune, Bangladesh](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/sajid-h-amit-dhaka-tribune-bangladesh/) - “I had steadfastly decided not to be wowed by the praise and approach it with an open mind, but on closing the book, have found my mind open with wonder, and enriched, stimulated and altogether inspired.” Sajid H. Amit Dhaka Tribune, Bangladesh
- [Sadia Khatri, Friday Times, Pakistan](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/sadia-khatri-friday-times-pakistan/) - “This is not a book that romanticizes brokenness, or creates magic out of trauma, or attempts redemption. Rather, it is a book that looks life in the face, not for what we wish it to be, but for what it is, with all its unkempt truths, its unjustifiable decisions, and things left unsaid, unexplained, uncorrected.”
- [Nadya Chishty-Mujahid, Dawn, Pakistan](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/nadya-chishty-mujahid-dawn-pakistan/) - “a semantic and linguistic Wonderland” Nadya Chishty-Mujahid Dawn, Pakistan

## Pages

- [Home](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/)
- [Dhaka, Bangladesh](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/dhaka-bangladesh/) - Talk, Dhaka University, Bangladesh (20 min video) Interview, Firdous Azim (20 min video)
- [Press Kit](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/press-kit/) - High resolution photos Representation: Sarah Chalfant, schalfant@wylieagency.co.uk; Andrew Wylie, awylie@wylieagency.com Zia Haider Rahman (ˈziə ˈhaɪdər ˈrɑːmən) is the author of the internationally critically acclaimed and prize-winning 2014 novel, In the Light of What We Know. Zia was born in a village in Bangladesh and moved to England with his family, living first in a squat
- [Parallel Universe](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/in-praise-of-mathematics/) - First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, A POINT OF VIEW TRANSCRIPT Last month I introduced my 5 year old godson to some well-known workbooks, a bundle of four covering English, Verbal Reasoning, Non-Verbal Reasoning and Mathematics. I leafed through them all before dismissing the Mathematics book as boring and settled on the Non-Verbal Reasoning book,
- [A Word of Advice](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/a-word-of-advice/) - First broadcast on BBC Radio 4, A POINT OF VIEW TRANSCRIPT Twenty years ago, Lord Woolf, then a senior British judge, gave a talk to newly minted lawyers. In the Q&A afterwards, a young black barrister asked if Woolf had any advice for someone ”like her.“ Woolf knew exactly what she meant. “Be better than
- [High Res Photos](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/high-res-photos/)
- [](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/aboutzhr/) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zia_Haider_Rahman
- [Media](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/media/)
- [About](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/about/)
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- [Privacy policy](https://ziahaiderrahman.com/privacy-policy/) - This Privacy Policy governs the manner in which Zia Haider Rahman's web site collects, uses, maintains and discloses information collected from users (each, a "User") of the http://ziahaiderrahman.com website ("Site"). Personal identification information We may collect personal identification information from Users in a variety of ways, including, but not limited to, when Users visit our site,
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