Were born with an in-built capacity for language. It is wired into our brains, just as an in-built capacity for breathing is wired into our lungs. We need language. We need language to tell stories. We need stories to create a self. Alongside his highly acclaimed novels, Mohsin Hamid has written superb pieces over the years about politics, literature and his own life. Collected together for the first time, they show that Hamid is not just a great novelist but a master critic of the modern global condition. Provocative, dexterous, full of ideas-this is a sparkling collection.