Are You Enjoying?

LONGLISTED FOR THE STORY PRIZE

“Fresh, intelligent, and bold: Mira Sethi’s stories open up fascinating slices of contemporary life in Pakistan.” —Mohsin Hamid, author of Exit West

“Mira Sethi has an extraordinary talent for capturing the vulnerability of people caught in the contrasting currents of modernity and the past. These are complex, delicate stories, alert to both the comic and the tragic. And while they focus on characters changing in a changing society, there is a timelessness about Sethi’s work that I think comes from her precise observations that a reader will remember like lines of poetry, for their beauty.” —Kiran Desai, Booker Prize–winning author of The Inheritance of Loss

“A powerful book with a light touch, marking the arrival of an assured storyteller…Sethi is operating in a rich tradition of South Asian storytelling, but also, with the distinct and vibrant perspective she offers, making it her own.” —Vogue

“Are You Enjoying? is emotional, equally hilarious, and gutting. I couldn’t put this book down because I’d been welcomed into the most intimate parts of these characters’ lives.” —Rupi Kaur, author of Milk and Honey

“It’s pure joy to read this book…Bracingly sharp…While Sethi clearly has fun with her characters, she also treats them with sensitivity and compassion.” —Refinery29

“Perceptive, witty, and beautifully written, these stories open unusual windows into the world of young, urban South Asians. Signals the arrival of a hugely gifted young writer.” —Amitav Ghosh, via Instagram

“A striking debut collection…Fascinating…Sethi’s writing brings a fresh view to Pakistani life.” —Publishers Weekly

“In her provocative and deeply satisfying debut story collection, Sethi brings a fresh, smart twist to life in Pakistan mostly through the lens of young women…Sethi keenly catches subtle class and status distinctions but also brings wise insight into her characters as they grapple with questions of relocation and dislocation and matches it with a sharp edge.” —National Book Review

“With #OwnVoices nuance and precision, Sethi both exposes and enthralls.” —Booklist (starred)
 
“Biting and incisive stories…especially striking for their portrayal of hidden homosexuality.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Vibrant, incisive, and provocative.” —Buzzfeed

“Mira Sethi knows of what she writes…A welcome addition to the canon.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“A voice that is as fresh as it is formidable…Sethi’s stories are a real crucible for personal and national feeling, and she evokes a harrowing sense of ‘lostness’ through her characters…Enormously compelling.” —Dawn

“A delightfully daring debut . . . Enthralling, and at times heart-rending . . . A sweeping critical reflection on South Asian society, set in the day-to-day hustle and bustle of life in contemporary Pakistan . . . Sethi pulls back the curtain of propriety to highlight hypocrisies and scandals not for the sole sake of exposing them, but to give a glimpse into the emotions and experiences . . . Sethi crafts characters with layered complexities.”—The National

“Sethi’s stories apply an admirably sharp and witty lens to a spectrum of young, urban Pakistanis. This is an important demographic and one that deserves to be presented to a global audience often subjected to reductive media portrayals of Pakistan.”—Foreign Policy

“Sethi writes about class mobility, sexuality, and gender inequality with care and complexity . . . Here, Pakistan is not a set of binaries seen under western eyes; it holds its own place in the world.”—Sana Goyal, Irish Times

“Delightful and refreshing . . . A debut worth applauding . . . The trope of Pakistan as a failed state, struggling under the weight of terrorism, has become so jaded that it needs to retire. Beyond the stories that reinforce stereotypes about the country, there are many others waiting to be told—of people who love, dream, hustle, scheme and cross boundaries. Are You Enjoying? probes their lives with a mixture of curiosity and amusement.”—Chintan Girish Modi, Open magazine

“The perfect airport read . . . The stories are quick, crisp reads that nudge the reader into the everyday lives of the relatable protagonists . . . The boundaries between the real and the fictional are enticingly blurry.”—Navmi Krishna, The Hindu

“A breath of fresh air . . . Strong stereotype-smashing female protagonists bring these stories to life.”—Mita Mistry, Eastern Eye

“Mira Sethi is a skilled writer: her narratives are well-paced, the characters nuanced, and the social critiques subtle. These stories overturn any stereotypes we might have of Pakistani culture and about Muslim women.”—Nalini Iyer, International Examiner