A review by sarahheidt
In the Light of What We Know by Zia Haider Rahman

5.0

This book is a big, serious challenge: if you're looking for easy beach reading or something that will make you feel good about your place in the world, then this novel is almost certain to frustrate you. Rahman doesn't shy away from making us think about difficult mathematics, the banking crisis, the economics of global philanthropy, the trickiness of memory, or the impossibility of knowing other people completely. It's written in a narrative style designed to throw you off--to make you think about the ways that other people's stories and words get into our heads, and the ways we retell those stories ourselves. If you read this one--and I recommend it, as a serious and open-eyed representation of our world in the last 20 years--pay it full attention and it will repay you.