Red Birds
by Mohammed Hanif
A downed pilot, a refugee camp, and a hustle.
For you if
you want a war novel that laughs at the people profiting from it.
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A US Air Force pilot is shot down over an unnamed country and crash-lands in the desert near a refugee camp. A local teenager, Momo, who makes money by selling anything to the aid workers, starts working out how to turn the pilot into profit. A dog, a mother and an NGO voice join the narration. Hanif, who also wrote A Case of Exploding Mangoes, turns the war on terror into a dark comedy about who profits from rescue.
Where This Book Lives
Pass with note. Savage and unsparing, including about aid workers and refugees themselves, so the satire cuts in more directions than one; it includes war violence and a dog's voice that some readers find twee. Hanif is a Pakistani novelist and former BBC journalist with no documented concerns. Second Hanif in the catalog after A Case of Exploding Mangoes. Close relatives: Catch-22, Slaughterhouse-Five, The Good Soldier Svejk and Exit West.
Related Viewing
Shares a topic or setting with this book, or several of its themes.
Election(1999)
dir. Alexander Payne
Same themes: Community, Propaganda
A school election, rigged by the grown-ups.
At Carver High, overachiever Tracy Flick is running unopposed for student body president, and her teacher, Mr. McAllister, decides he cannot let that happen. What starts as a dry school comedy turns into a story of a rigged contest, small cruelties, and the quiet ways adults twist power. A black comedy that treats a high-school vote like a presidential one.
Why it’s here: It's a film about who gets to run and who gets stopped. What's punk is a satire that lets neither the system nor its self-righteous teacher off the hook. What's pedagogical is Tracy herself, a character viewers read very differently depending on their age, which is its own lesson in bias. Pairs with Idiocracy, Dr. Strangelove and How Democracies Die. Note: R-rated; sexual content between an adult and a student, played for discomfort; teens and adults. English.
Where to watch: Subscription: Paramount+ ($8.99/mo), MGM Plus; free: Kanopy (library card), YouTube with ads; rent $5.99, buy $4.99-14.99 on Amazon, Apple TV, Fandango At Home (JustWatch US, checked 2026-11-06). Verify.Letterboxd ↗
Same pattern, different era
Different time, different place. The same thing keeps happening.
A Brief History of Neoliberalism
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A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction
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A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide
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'Never again,' again and again.
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Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
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The medium is the message, and it is selling you.
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For the family bookshelf
Same idea, written for a younger reader. Good for reading together.
A Different Pond
Bao Phi
A refugee dad, a fishing pole, and 4 a.m.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Ada's Violin: The Story of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay
Susan Hood
A violin made from a landfill. A real orchestra.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Akata Witch
Nnedi Okorafor
A girl who doesn't fit finds a hidden world.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Amina's Voice
Hena Khan
A shy girl sings out after her mosque is attacked.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST