Home Boy

Hussain M Naqvi

HarperCollins

274 pages, Rs 399

In prison, I finally got it. I understood that just as three black men were gangbangers, and three Jews a conspiracy, three Muslims had become what would be known as a ‘sleeper cell.’

Three young Pakistani men in New York City at the turn of the millennium: AC, a gangsta rap spouting academic; Jimbo, a hulking Pushtun deejay from the streets of Jersey City; and Chuck, a wide-eyed kid, fresh-off-the-boat from the homeland. But when they embark on a road-trip to the hinterland weeks after 9/11 in search of the Shaman, a Gatsbyesque compatriot, things go horribly wrong.