Members, remember to participate in our free book programs by Saturday!

Hari Kunzru Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Hari Kunzru

Hari Kunzru

How to pronounce Hari Kunzru: HAR-ee KUNE-zroo

Hari Kunzru Biography

Hari Kunzru is the author of seven novels, Red Pill, White Tears, Gods Without Men, My Revolutions, Transmission, The Impressionist and Blue Ruin. He is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books and writes the "Easy Chair" column for Harper's Magazine. He is an Honorary Fellow of Wadham College Oxford, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and has been a Cullman Fellow at the New York Public Library, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a Fellow of the American Academy in Berlin. He teaches in the Creative Writing Program at New York University and is the host of the podcast Into the Zone, from Pushkin Industries. He lives in Brooklyn.

Hari Kunzru's website

This bio was last updated on 04/30/2024. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Interview

Hari Kunzru discusses his first novel, The Impressionist, a black comedy about race and identity, that partially developed from his own experience as a child of an Indian father and English mother.

Described by The Observer as 'The most eagerly awaited British debut of 2002,' Hari Kunzru's The Impressionist is an epic tale of adventure and discovery. Here, we asked Hari about inspiration, identity and the cultural legacy of the British Empire.

How would you describe the The Impressionist?
The Impressionist is a black comedy about race and identity. It goes from India to England to Paris to Africa following one character, Pran, who assumes a great deal of different identities and never quite fits into any of them.

Where did the idea for the book come from?
Part of the idea came from my own experience of being the child of an Indian father and an English mother. I've grown up in England and feel pretty English in my upbringing, but there's always been an aspect of my experience that hasn't quite fitted. I wanted to write something about a character like that, only I've reversed the polarities in a way. Pran is the child of an English father and an Indian mother and I've set the book at a time (the 1920s) - maybe the last time - when the Empire really mattered. It's at a crisis point in the story of the British Empire, which of course is kind of why I m here. My father would never have come to Britain if ...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Books by this Author

Books by Hari Kunzru at BookBrowse
Blue Ruin jacket Red Pill jacket White Tears jacket Gods Without Men jacket
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Hari Kunzru but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • David   Hopen

    David Hopen

    David Hopen is from Hollywood, Florida. He graduated from Yale College and earned his master's degree from the University of Oxford. The Orchard is his debut novel. (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Gods Without Men

    Try:
    The Orchard
    by David Hopen

  • Rachel Cusk

    Rachel Cusk

    Rachel Cusk is the author of Second Place, the Outline trilogy, the memoirs A Life's Work and Aftermath, and several other works of fiction and nonfiction. She is a Guggenheim Fellow. She lives in Paris. (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Blue Ruin

    Try:
    Second Place
    by Rachel Cusk

We recommend 19 similar authors


Non-members can see 2 results. Become a member
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Rental House
    Rental House
    by Weike Wang
    For many of us, vacations offer an escape from the everyday — a chance to explore new places, ...
  • Book Jacket
    The Frozen River
    by Ariel Lawhon
    "I cannot say why it is so important that I make this daily record. Perhaps because I have been ...
  • Book Jacket: Everything We Never Had
    Everything We Never Had
    by Randy Ribay
    Francisco Maghabol has recently arrived in California from the Philippines, eager to earn money to ...
  • Book Jacket: The Demon of Unrest
    The Demon of Unrest
    by Erik Larson
    In the aftermath of the 1860 presidential election, the divided United States began to collapse as ...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
In Our Midst
by Nancy Jensen
In Our Midst follows a German immigrant family’s fight for freedom after their internment post–Pearl Harbor.
Book Jacket
The Berry Pickers
by Amanda Peters
A four-year-old Mi'kmaq girl disappears, leaving a mystery unsolved for fifty years.
Who Said...

When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign...

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Big Holiday Wordplay 2024

Enter Now

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.