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Unimagined  is Number 1 Bestseller at Byron Bay Writers' Festival 2009

Phillip Adams thinks Imran Ahmad is ‘a delightful fellow’ on ABC ‘Late Night Live’

The best books of 2007 – The Independent

The pick of the literary crop 2007 – The Sydney Morning Herald

Books of the year  – The Guardian

Paperback of the week – The Guardian

Unimagined ranked no 11 at Sydney Writers' Festival 2008

Best non-fiction read of 2007 – dovegreyreader

Best books of 2007 – The Belfast Telegraph

Shortlisted for the YoungMinds Book Award 2007

Manchester Grammar School selects Unimagined in Year 9 Top Ten Recommended Reading List

University of Stirling places Unimagined on core reading list for English Literature

Bruce Elder writes an extraordinary foreword to the Australian edition of Unimagined

Scott Pack writes about the publication of Unimagined    * RECOMMENDED INSIGHT *

Grumpy Old Bookman and Clive Keeble discuss Unimagined    * RECOMMENDED INSIGHT *

“This was an amazing talk.  Imran weaved Shakespeare, re-humanization, anthropology, current affairs, Islam and the West, geo-politics, corporate life, self-help, spirituality, motivation and following your dream into a wonderful, engaging and hilarious narrative that had me riveted.”  

McKell Moorhead

Tampa Bay, Florida

“Is Imran Ahmad the funniest writer around?  He’s certainly a challenger.”

Scott Pack – The Friday Project

“... weepingly funny ...”

Linda Grant – prize-winning novelist

Imran Ahmad is passing through Sydney on his way to the

Byron Bay Writers’ Festival

7 - 9 August 2009

“... had the audience in stitches ...”

THREE WEEKS – Edinburgh Festival

“... captivated the audience ...”

Jill Morris

Morley Literature Festival

“Imran gave a tremendous speech ... He speaks from the heart, is entertaining and engaging – and is a first rate public speaker.”

Barbara Herts – Former CEO YoungMinds, London

“I’ve been to many talks by famous writers, but this was the most enjoyable one ever.”

Audience member – Atlanta  April 3, 2009

‘Deserves all the praise it’s had …’   

Phillip Pullman

‘Tender humour and intelligence … Just beautiful’   

Antonella Gambotto-Burke

‘I consumed Unimagined as soon as I started it.  I couldn’t wait until the plane ride.  It was an absolute  joy to read.  I loved every moment of it’   

Randa Abdel-Fattah

Foreword to Australian Edition of Unimagined

(Murdoch Books, Sept 2008)  

by Bruce Elder  

Over the past five years, in the role of reviewer of non-fiction for the Sydney Morning Herald, I have read more than one thousand books.  Inevitably people query anyone's ability to read, absorb and evaluate so many books.  Yet there are a couple of simple truths about such a frightening workload.  

How do I read that many books?  In two words: speed reading.  But, more importantly, how does anyone confronted with such a daunting task know that their judgement is sound and their enthusiasms are correct? 

A second simple truth: non-fiction falls into easily identifiable categories.  Category A: books which would make a good magazine article and which some bright-eyed publisher has persuaded an author to flesh out to 80-100,000 words.  Category B: books where the idea – be it a biography of a celebrity or an account of a widely publicised crime – is what the publisher wants, and, anyway, there's always a sub-editor waiting to turn tortured and tortuous prose into something approaching plain English.  And Category C: books where the writing is so beautiful, lucid, imaginative and worthwhile that they rise above the pile trailing clouds of glory and making the reviewer's heart sing.  This last category, I can assure you, is very small.  

After a while the overworked reviewer gets a "nose" for Category C.  The gems sit in the mountains of dross (don't get me started on the argument about too many books being published) in the Literary Editor's office shyly saying "Open me and you will be amazed".  

And so it was that, amongst another pile of books for review, I saw a photograph of a dapper child in a suit and said to myself: "I wonder what that is about."  

Contrary to accepted wisdom, when you've read a thousand books you can identify a "goodie" after a couple of paragraphs.  And the wonder of a "goodie" book is that it turns a speed reader with a deadline into a "reading for enjoyment" lover of literature and, instantly, you are savouring every word, laughing at the happy moments, letting the life of another person wash over you and saturate your being, marvelling at the love of language and being swept along by the sheer power and beauty of a writer determined to tell his or her story. 

I still remember my experience with "Unimagined".  It filled an entire day. I could not put the book down.  I laughed at Imran's memories of his childhood. I marvelled at his ability to look at his stumbles with such fearless honesty and I shared his gentle, wry irritation at the unfairness of the world.  

The greatness of this book is easy to understand.  Read it and you will come to know Imran Ahmad as though you have spent a lifetime growing up with him.  You will warm to his wonderfully self-deprecating sense of humour and, almost incidentally, you will learn a lot about yourself and a vast amount about the complex multicultural confusion of growing up as an immigrant Pakistani Muslim in England.  This is a wise and witty book about the new cultural reality of globalisation. 

Bruce Elder

2008

Richard Morris, British Consul-General to NSW, will be introducing Imran Ahmad, author of Unimagined – a Muslim boy meets the West.

In this talk entitled: ‘Islam and the West: Living, Travelling and Getting Published in a Post-9/11 World’, Imran Ahmad gives an insightful, poignant, entertaining but, above all, personal account of his experiences growing up in the Cold War era, dreaming of being a writer, and the profound changes he experienced after 9/11.  His emotions during his frequent business travel to America transformed from joyful anticipation to nervous apprehension.  He discusses the ‘lazy tribalism’ which drives us towards polarization, dehumanization and demonization, and the need for a ‘re-humanization’ of the relationship between the Islamic and Western worlds.

His hilarious account of his journey to publication reveals how the motif of ‘Islam vs the West’ is very hard to break – especially when it’s profitable. Also, how following your dream entails doing the necessary work and getting some good luck along the way.  

Earlier this year, Imran Ahmad embarked on a 14,000 mile drive around the United States in a hybrid car, conducting 41 speaking events in 39 cities, as part of his ‘re-humanization’ mission.