This is Where the Serpent Lives

Intimate and epic, elegiac and profoundly moving: a tour de force destined to become a classic of contemporary literature

‘Set to be a standout novel of 2026 ... Brutal, funny and brilliantly told’ — Patrick Gale, Guardian

‘All the makings of a classic’ — Vogue

‘Expect to see this novel all over prize lists in 2026 ... Mueenuddin is a literary magician’ — The Times

‘Masterful storytelling’ — Daily Mail

‘A book you'll be hearing about again’ — New York Times

‘An excoriating epic of class and power’ — Observer

‘A future classic, pure and simple ... Simply put, the novel is a triumph’ — Irish Times

Moving from Pakistan’s sophisticated cities to its most rural farmlands, This Is Where the Serpent Lives captures the extraordinary proximity of extreme wealth to extreme poverty in a land where fate is determined by class and social station.

Daniyal Mueenuddin’s This Is Where the Serpent Lives paints a powerful portrait of contemporary feudal Pakistan and a farm on which the destinies of a dozen unforgettable characters are linked through violence and love, resilience and tragedy. Yazid rises from abject poverty to the role of trusted servant to an affluent gangster; Saqib, an errand boy, is eventually trusted to lead his boss’s new farming venture, where he becomes determined to rise above his rank by any means necessary. Saqib’s boss, the wealthy landowner Hisham, reminisces about meeting his wife while she was dating his brother, while Gazala, a young teacher, falls for Saqib and his bold promises for their future before learning about his plans to skim money from the farm’s profits.

In matters of both business and the heart, Mueenuddin’s characters struggle to choose between the paths that are moral and the paths that will allow them to survive the systems of caste, capital and social power that so tightly grip their country.

‘Stunning’ — Los Angeles Times

‘Mueenuddin recalls Chekhov ... But another writer comes to mind as well - Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, whose 1958 The Leopard offers a layered totalizing portrait of a society that is both changing and failing to change. This Is Where the Serpent Lives has that kind of ambition and captures its world in the same exhilarating and unsparing way’ — Wall Street Journal

‘A work of mosaic structure and expansive power’ — Financial Times

‘The best fiction to read this year’ — New Statesman

‘A shining example of the very best literature’ — Washington Post

‘A Dickensian saga set in modern Pakistan’ — Boston Globe