Hanif Kureishi’s Followers (1,114)

Add New
Videos

Hanif Kureishi on his new novel, The Last Word

Add a comment

Add a comment

Hanif Kureishi

Born

in London, The United Kingdom

December 05, 1954

Website

http://www.hanifkureishi.co.uk

Twitter

hanifkureishi

Genre

Literature & Fiction, Theatre & Film, Nonfiction

edit data

Hanif Kureishi is the author of novels (including The Buddha of Suburbia, The Black Album and Intimacy), story collections (Love in a Blue Time, Midnight All Day, The Body), plays (including Outskirts, Borderline and Sleep With Me), and screenplays (including My Beautiful Laundrette, My Son the Fanatic and Venus). Among his other publications are the collection of essays Dreaming and Scheming, The Word and the Bomb and the memoir My Ear at His Heart.

Kureishi was born in London to a Pakistani father and an English mother. His father, Rafiushan, was from a wealthy Madras family, most of whose members moved to Pakistan after the Partition of India in 1947. He came to Britain to study law but soon abandoned his studies. After meeting and marryi Hanif Kureishi is the author of novels (including The Buddha of Suburbia, The Black Album and Intimacy), story collections (Love in a Blue Time, Midnight All Day, The Body), plays (including Outskirts, Borderline and Sleep With Me), and screenplays (including My Beautiful Laundrette, My Son the Fanatic and Venus). Among his other publications are the collection of essays Dreaming and Scheming, The Word and the Bomb and the memoir My Ear at His Heart.

Kureishi was born in London to a Pakistani father and an English mother. His father, Rafiushan, was from a wealthy Madras family, most of whose members moved to Pakistan after the Partition of India in 1947. He came to Britain to study law but soon abandoned his studies. After meeting and marrying Kureishi’s mother Audrey, Rafiushan settled in Bromley, where Kureishi was born, and worked at the Pakistan Embassy.

Kureishi attended Bromley Technical High School where David Bowie had also been a pupil and after taking his A levels at a local sixth form college, he spent a year studying philosophy at Lancaster University before dropping out. Later he attended King’s College London and took a degree in philosophy. In 1985 he wrote My Beautiful Laundrette, a screenplay about a gay Pakistani-British boy growing up in 1980’s London for a film directed by Stephen Frears. It won the New York Film Critics Best Screenplay Award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay.

His book The Buddha of Suburbia (1990) won the Whitbread Award for the best first novel, and was also made into a BBC television series with a soundtrack by David Bowie. The next year, 1991, saw the release of the feature film entitled London Kills Me; a film written and directed Kureishi.

His novel Intimacy (1998) revolved around the story of a man leaving his wife and two young sons after feeling physically and emotionally rejected by his wife. This created certain controversy as Kureishi himself had recently left his wife and two young sons. It is assumed to be at least semi-autobiographical. In 2000/2001 the novel was loosely adapted to a movie Intimacy by Patrice Chéreau, which won two Bears at the Berlin Film Festival: a Golden Bear for Best Film, and a Silver Bear for Best Actress (Kerry Fox). It was controversial for its unreserved sex scenes. The book was translated into Persian by Niki Karimi in 2005.

He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2008 New Year Honours.

Kureishi is married and has a pair of twins and a younger son. ...more

Combine Editions
Hanif Kureishi’s books

Average rating: 3.59 · 49,139 ratings · 4,025 reviews · 132 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Buddha of Suburbia 3.75 avg rating — 20,701 ratings — published 1990 — 107 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Intimacy 3.49 avg rating — 6,182 ratings — published 1998 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Black Album 3.45 avg rating — 3,254 ratings — published 1995 — 49 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Something to Tell You 3.27 avg rating — 2,133 ratings — published 2008 — 53 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Nothing 3.18 avg rating — 1,793 ratings — published 2017 — 33 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	My Son the Fanatic 3.48 avg rating — 1,516 ratings — published 1998 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Gabriel's Gift 3.29 avg rating — 1,598 ratings — published 1998 — 42 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Body 3.57 avg rating — 1,338 ratings — published 2002 — 30 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	My Beautiful Launderette 3.61 avg rating — 1,197 ratings — published 1986 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Love in a Blue Time 3.45 avg rating — 1,155 ratings — published 1997 — 28 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Hanif Kureishi…

Quotes by Hanif Kureishi (?)

“At the same time, you have to find the right distance between people. Too close, and they overwhelm you, too far and they abandon you. How to hold them in the right relation?”
― Hanif Kureishi, Intimacy

227 likes

“Soon we will be strangers. No, we can never be that. Hurting someone is an act of reluctant intimacy. We will be dangerous acquaintances with a history.”
― Hanif Kureishi, Intimacy

171 likes

“Falling in love was simple; one had only to yield. Digesting another person, however, and sustaining love, was bloody work, and not a soft job.”
― Hanif Kureishi, Midnight all Day

tags: acceptance, commitment, love, perseverance

135 likes

See all Hanif Kureishi's quotes »

Polls

What should we be reading first? (set to start on February 1st, 2016)

George Orwell - Nineteen Eighty-Four

6 votes, 26.1%

Hanif Kureishi - The Buddha of Suburbia

4 votes, 17.4%

Anthony Burgess - A Clockwork Orange

3 votes, 13.0%

Truman Capote - In Cold Blood

3 votes, 13.0%

Vladimir Nabokov - Lolita

2 votes, 8.7%

Mikhail Bulgakov - The Master and Margarita

2 votes, 8.7%

Angela Carter - Nights at the Circus

2 votes, 8.7%

Don DeLillo - White Noise

1 vote, 4.3%

John Osborne - Look Back in Anger

0 votes, 0.0%

Junot Díaz - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

0 votes, 0.0%

23 total votes

1 comment

More...

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Pick-a-Shelf: 2009-12 - Humor - Post December's Reviews Here	117	96	Jan 02, 2010 02:26PM
Challenge: 50 Books: Lauli's 50 books in 2010	87	316	Dec 30, 2010 05:18PM
Reading with Style: WI 10-11 RwS Completed Tasks - Winter	704	510	Mar 01, 2011 09:19AM
Romance Readers R...: 2011 Create-Your-Own Reading Challenge	245	554	Feb 13, 2012 01:09PM
The History Book ...: VICKI'S 50 BOOKS READ IN 2012	101	167	Jan 04, 2013 01:41PM

More…

Is this you? Let us know. If not, help out and invite Hanif to Goodreads.

Hanif Kureishi’s Followers (1,114)

Add NewVideos

Hanif Kureishi

Combine EditionsHanif Kureishi’s books

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

Add New
Videos

Combine Editions
Hanif Kureishi’s books