New Kings of the World

"A probing look at some of the shifting tides of global culture. Having borne witness to the throes of political upheaval in her birth country of Pakistan, journalist and novelist Bhutto here explores the local roots and global impact of three contemporary pop-culture game-changers: Bollywood (India), dizi (Turkey), and K-pop (South Korea). Many American readers may be surprised to learn that what's entertaining much of the rest of the world no longer hails from Hollywood or New York....Witty and packed with detail, this is an intercultural shot that should be heard around the world." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred)

There is a vast cultural movement emerging from beyond the Western world. Truly global in its range and allure, it is the biggest challenge yet to Hollywood, McDonald’s, and blue jeans. This is a book about these new arbiters of mass culture arising from the East—India’s Bollywood films, Turkish soap opera, or dizi, and South Korean pop music. Carefully packaging not always secular modernity with traditional values in urbanized settings, they have created a new global pop culture that can be easily consumed, especially by the many millions coming late to the modern world and still negotiating its overwhelming challenges.

Acclaimed author Fatima Bhutto profiles Shah Rukh Khan, by many measures the most popular movie star in the world; goes behind the scenes ofMagnificent Century, Turkey’s biggest dizi, watched by upwards of 200 million people across 43 countries; and travels to South Korea to see how K-pop started it all.

Fatima Bhutto was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, and grew up between Syria and Pakistan. She is the author of five previous books of fiction and nonfiction. Her debut novel, The Shadow of the Crescent Moon, was long listed for the Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction, and the memoir about her father's life and assassination, Songs of Blood and Sword, was published to acclaim. Her most recent book is The Runaways, a novel.