The Hypebeast [Paperback]

Striving to get ahead in a world of scams, Hamid is caught in the fervour surrounding a charismatic social-media imam with questionable intentions.

Hamid Shaikh is a small-time crook in the big city, hoping that one of his cons will lead to riches. Tax fraud, telemarketing tricks, government scams. Whatever it takes. When hes not working the phones hustling fake promises, he dreams of a move that will finally announce his arrival.

When his girlfriend Natalie Mendoza vanishes, Hamid finds himself pulled into the orbit of former Guantanamo Bay detainee turned social-media imam Abdul Mohammad. On the surface, Abduls organization is virtuous: they are helping other detainees rehabilitate to life outside the prison. But as Hamid dives deeper into Abduls nebulous and luxurious world, he finds a confusing mix of religious zeal and cynical self-advancement. With his connection to the imam deepening, Hamid must decide just how far into darkness he can go before losing sight of himself.CA

1.

This is my favourite spot. The Oberoi hotel in Bombay and its precisely landscaped interior lawns and light fixtures that glow like veneers. Its true that Muslims are fanatic about gardens. All our kings obsessively tended to their greenery  from Delhi to Baghdad to Cordoba, the trail of conquerors is pruned. Now its shawarma shops: tahini sauce and tender meat, hungry students, cab drivers, late-nite drunks. What happened to our greatness? How did we go from conquerors to Uber delivery, from emperors to 7/11?

One year ago, I was still in Toronto when I had my last stab at greatness. Starved after an Al-Anon meeting, I was in a slit of a shawarma shop. Meat and vegetables on the left side steaming in metal pans, and on the right, a short bar and mirror reflected the servers back to themselves.

There was always a new kind manning the counter. Usually Pakistani, often Somalian, the occasional Arab. That day it was a disdainful Persian too el3)