The Haunting of Hajji Hotak

A finalist for the National Book Award - a luminous new collection of stories from a young writer with 'a singular, resonant voice, an American teenager raised by Old World Afghan storytellers' (New York Times)

WINNER OF A 2023 O. HENRY PRIZE FOR SHORT FICTION
FINALIST FOR THE 2022 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION
SHORTLISTED FOR THE LA TIMES BOOK PRIZE FOR FICTION
NAMED A BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022 BY THE NEW YORKER AND THE ATLANTIC

PEN/Hemingway finalist Jamil Jan Kochai breathes life into his contemporary Afghan characters, moving between modern-day Afghanistan and the Afghan diaspora in America. These arresting stories verge on both comedy and tragedy, often starring young characters whose bravado is matched by their tenderness.

In “Playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain,” a young man’s video game experience turns into a surreal exploration of his own father’s memories of war and occupation. Set in Kabul, “Return to Sender” follows two married doctors driven by guilt to leave the US and care for their fellow Afghans, even when their own son disappears. A college student in the US in “Hungry Ricky Daddy” starves himself in protest of Israeli violence against Palestine. And in the title story, The Haunting of Hajji Hotak, we learn the story of a man codenamed Hajji, from the perspective of a government surveillance worker, who becomes entrenched in the immigrant family’s life.

The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories is a moving exploration of characters grappling with the ghosts of war and displacement - and one that speaks to the immediate political landscape we reckon with today.

'An endlessly inventive and moving collection from a thrilling and capacious young talent' — Jess Walter, author of Beautiful Ruins.

'Kochai’s short fiction defies expectations – readers’ expectations of what a story should look like, and the story of a nation often told reductively and exclusively through media headlines' (Guardian)