The character arc of Mohsin Hamid
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born on 23 July 1971 in Lahore, Pakistan, into a family of Punjabi and Kashmiri descent. Between then and now sit six years of childhood in California while his father took a doctorate, a return to Lahore, a first novel drafted in Toni Morrison's fiction workshop, a Harvard law degree, student loans repaid by consultancy work with three months a year bought back for writing, Moth Smoke in 2000, a million selling second novel, a brand consultancy job kept to three days a week, a Booker shortlist in 2017, and a move home to Lahore. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Drag along the line to move, pinch or use the buttons to look closer. Tap the line to pluck it, or any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of his life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is Mohsin Hamid?
Three months a year to write, and seven years to finish it.
He was born in Lahore and taken to California at three, where he stayed until he was nine while his father took a doctorate at Stanford. Then the family went back to Lahore and he went to the American school there. At eighteen he returned to the United States, and graduated from Princeton in 1993 with the highest honours, after a hundred and twenty seven page thesis on energy planning in Pakistan. He had also, while there, studied under Joyce Carol Oates and Toni Morrison, and written the first draft of a novel for Morrison's fiction workshop.
He went home to Pakistan to keep working on it, then to Harvard Law School, graduating in 1997. He found corporate law boring. To repay the student loans he worked for several years as a management consultant in New York, on terms that let him take three months off every year to write. He used those three month blocks to finish the novel he had started in the workshop, and it was published in 2000, seven years after the first draft. It became a cult hit in Pakistan and India, was a finalist for a major American first novel prize, and was adapted for television and, in Italy, as an operetta.
He moved to London in the summer of 2001 meaning to stay one year, and stayed eight. In 2004 he joined a brand consultancy on three days a week, so as to keep time to write, and later ran its London office and was made its first chief storytelling officer. His second novel, published in 2007, sold a million copies, reached fourth on the New York Times list, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and was translated into more than twenty five languages.
He moved back to Lahore in 2009 with his wife and their newborn daughter, and now lives between Lahore, New York and London. Two more novels followed, one of them shortlisted for the Booker in 2017, and a fifth in 2022. He has described himself as a mongrel, and has said that a novel can often be a divided man's conversation with himself.
The moments
Mohsin Hamid's timeline.
The 1970s
California, from three to nine
Everyday. Six years of an American childhood, then home to Lahore.
The 1980s
Back across the world at eighteen
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Eighteen, and a second crossing of the same ocean.
The 1990s
A draft for Toni Morrison
Milestone, and it changed everything. His first novel began as homework, marked by Toni Morrison.
Summa cum laude
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Top of his year, and straight home to keep writing.
A law degree he did not want
Milestone, and it changed his direction. He finished the degree and knew it was not the work.
Practise law, or buy time
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: take the job with three months in it, taken, or practise corporate law. Moth Smoke was finished in those three month blocks and published in 2000.
Three months bought back
Milestone, and it changed everything. A job that paid the loans, on condition that a quarter of the year was his.
The 2000s
Moth Smoke
Milestone, and it changed everything. The homework draft, seven years later, on shelves in two countries.
One year in London
Milestone. He packed for a year and unpacked for eight.
Three days a week, on purpose
Milestone, and it changed his direction. He negotiated the week down so the writing had somewhere to live.
A million copies
Milestone, and it changed everything. A million copies, twenty five languages, and a Booker shortlist.
Home, with a daughter
Milestone, and it changed his direction. A new baby, and the family moves back to the city he writes about.
The 2010s
A novel in the second person
Milestone. A third book, and a third form nobody had used that way before.
Shortlisted again
Milestone, and it changed his direction. A second Booker shortlist, ten years and two books on from the first.
The 2020s
The fifth novel
Milestone. Five novels in twenty two years, each one differently made.
The conversation with himself is still going on, in Lahore and London and New York at once. What it has set moving is permission: a first novel can take seven years and be written in three month instalments around a job you took to pay off the loans, and still be the one that changes what the next generation writes.
Your turn
Every line draws a unique story.
His was written in three month pieces, one a year, around a full time job. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.
Mohsin Hamid: frequently asked questions
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Where does this timeline of Mohsin Hamid's life come from?
More character arcs
Lives that rhyme with his.
Sources
- Mohsin Hamid, English Wikipedia biography, filed under living people.
- Princeton and Harvard records for his 1993 and 1997 degrees and his senior thesis.
- Booker Prize shortlists for 2007 and 2017, and publishing records for his five novels.