Mohammed Hanif’s satirical novel to Grove Press UK

Morgan Entrekin, Publisher of Grove Atlantic, has acquired World English rights (ex-India) to Mohammed Hanif’s new novel, The Rebel English Academy, for Grove Atlantic and Grove Press UK, from Clare Alexander at Aitken Alexander. Indian rights have been acquired by Penguin Random House at auction in a bid which included an undertaking to reissue his first two prize-winning books, A Case of Exploding Mangoes and Our Lady of Alice Bhatti. The book will be published in the UK and US in early 2026.

Mohammed Hanif is the author of three previous novels: A Case of Exploding Mangoes, Our Lady of Alice Bhatti and Red Birds.  A Case of Exploding Mangoes won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Novel, was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and longlisted for the Booker Prize. He lives in London.

The Rebel English Academy begins with the hanging of Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and follows a captain haunted by a botched mission, a district champion runner, a former revolutionary and a progressive imam. As their lives intersect in the Rebel English Academy, a school within the premises of the local mosque of a grim small town, Hanif offers both a critique of authoritarianism and a tale of loss and redemption. Weaving together political satire and dark humour, he explores themes of power, identity, survival and the complexities of faith and resistance.

Mohammed Hanif said:

“Morgan Entrekin is a dream publisher, and I am really excited to be working with him and the Grove team, both in America and now in the UK as well.”

Morgan Entrekin said:

“We are very excited to acquire Mohammed Hanif’s new novel The Rebel English Academy. He is a major voice in world literature and The Rebel English Academy is his best novel yet – an exuberant, rich narrative with a colourful cast of characters that offers a brilliant portrait of Pakistan, political power, religion and the role of language.”