Awards
| Year | Award/Honour | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Booker Prize | Shortlist | [4][5] |
| New York Times Notable Book of the Year | Selection | [4] | |
| 2008 | Ambassador Book Award of the English Speaking Union | Winner | [4] |
| Anisfield-Wolf Book Award | Winner | [4][6] | |
| Arts Council England Decibel Award | Shortlist | [4] | |
| Asian American Literary Award | Winner | [4][7] | |
| Australia-Asia Literary Award | Shortlist | [4][8] | |
| Commonwealth Writers Prize (Eurasia Region, Best Book) | Shortlist | [4][9] | |
| Index on Censorship T R Fyvel Award | Nominee | [4][10] | |
| James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction | Shortlist | [4][11] | |
| South Bank Show Annual Award for Literature | Winner | [4][12] | |
| 2009 | International Dublin Literary Award | Shortlist | [4][13] |
| Premio Speciale Dal Testo Allo Schermo | [4] |
Academic reception
In 2007, Davidson College assigned this book to all incoming freshmen as a topic for later discussion during Freshman Orientation. This book kicked off the theme of the school's 2007-08 year, which focused on diversity. The following year, Tulane University gave the novel to all new undergraduates as part of the Tulane University Reading Project.[14] In 2009, the University of St Andrews announced that they would be sending a free copy of The Reluctant Fundamentalist to all of 1,500 new undergraduates as part of a new incentive to "offer students a common topic for discussion and focus energies on reading and intellectual debate".[15] In 2010, Washington University in St. Louis gave the book to each of its incoming freshmen, as a part of the "Freshmen Reading Program."[16] Georgetown University chose this book for incoming freshmen's summer reading. Ursinus College has incorporated the novel into their unique Common Intellectual Experience for freshmen students. Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas uses the book in all honors rhetoric classes for first-year students. Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa and Siena College in Loudonville, New York use the novel as an introduction to their First Year Seminar programs. Lehigh University assigned all incoming freshman this novel in 2012. Rollins College has assigned this novel to their incoming freshmen as part of their summer reading program. The University of Evansville in Indiana uses the novel as a tool in the freshman First Year Seminar program. This program has the purpose of engaging incoming first-year students to topics of leadership and citizenship. Bucknell University chose it for the first year common reading for the Class of 2018. The University of Pretoria has this novel as part of the set work and reading list for English 220. New York City's CUNY Hunter College, department of English, assigns this book in an Asian American literature course for public discourse and a level of understanding of a post-9/11 age in America.
In his critique entitled "Mohsin Hamid Engages the World in The Reluctant Fundamentalist," M. S. E. Madiou goes against mainstream criticism, analyzing the historical and artistic contingencies Mohsin Hamid has faced while writing his novel focusing on 9/11 as one of Hamid's "Eureka" moments that has significantly contributed to the production of his novel.[1]
Commercial reception
The Reluctant Fundamentalist became a million-copy international best-seller.[17] It reached No. 4 on the New York Times Best Seller list.[18]
On 5 November 2019, the BBC News listed The Reluctant Fundamentalist on its list of the 100 most influential novels.[19]
