Praise for Passage to Lahore: One of the bravest pieces of writing to emerge from our carefully confused Canada. Samuel travels from Lahore to Montreal (and many points in-between) with the ease of an accredited nomad. In the doing, he stakes out a place for smart, wicked characters equally fluent in international politics and intellectual gossip. This book is unafraid of anger, unafraid of ideas, unafraid of speaking the wrong thing. Passage to Lahore marks Samuel as an important renegade voice within postcolonial fiction.–Cameron Bailey, artistic director, TIFF

A gang of old terrorists end up in the same retirement home in Québec. Joseph, the narrator, claims to be there to make sure they do not, in their dotage, incriminate themselves. Or are these the meandering memories of an old man? Julian Samuel has written a brilliant, disturbing and at times moving novel about terrorism.

Julian Samuel’s speculative novel shocks the reader while making her laugh and cry all at once. It is irreverent, sardonic and brutal, with body parts being blown to unrecognizable pieces. Nothing is sacred anymore. There are no gods except made-up ones for terrorists. Whatever smiles are there are the smiles of the near dead. It does not matter who falls as long as the donkeys are intact. All is fair as long as there is no disclosure during the “whimper” at the end – the one last blast before the final take off.

In an age of gross inequality, economic disparity, environmental degradation and political instability the author has given us a revealing portrait of an unsavoury creature willing to sell his soul to a lost cause.