Pierre Bayard is a French author and professor of literature. Some years ago he published a book, How to Talk About...
Updated 17 Feb, 2017 05:17pm
A young adult novel that takes the path less travelled
Published 12 Feb, 2017 07:23am
Neither white nor black in the midst of apartheid
Published 12 Feb, 2017 07:23am
“Thor, bless his heart, has no narrative arc: he is the same person all the way through.”
Published 12 Feb, 2017 07:23am
A new trove of letters illuminates Hasan Askari’s relationships with his contemporaries
Updated 15 Feb, 2017 02:54pm
Stories of survival from women in some of the world’s most dangerous places
Published 12 Feb, 2017 07:23am
SOUTH Asia is becoming increasingly monolingual and linguistically divided, in terms of both intellectual discourse...
Published 05 Feb, 2017 06:59am
REVIEWING a new play on the radio, a drama critic described it at length — a soldier returning from Afghanistan...
Updated 05 Feb, 2017 09:32am
The winners of the first PSL mark their victory with a collector’s item
Published 05 Feb, 2017 06:59am
Although the theory of a single currency may hold weight, its practical implementations
leave much to be desired
Published 05 Feb, 2017 06:59am
Architecture was Habib Fida Ali’s passion and he successfully transferred that fervour into many outstanding buildings
Published 29 Jan, 2017 06:34am
Nazia Ejaz explores themes of perception and identity without political, cultural or geographic peculiarity
Published 29 Jan, 2017 06:34am
Loving Vincent is a corny new biopic made from 62,450 hack oil paintings in Van Gogh’s style –
Published 29 Jan, 2017 06:34am
This unusual trek in Hunza is a difficult one but is worth it
Updated 30 Jan, 2017 03:26pm
Voices of dissent are once again being raised about a constitutional requirement.
Updated 30 Jan, 2017 01:05pm
I write this column for B&A in interesting times. There is an expression we repeat in our conversations, ...
Updated 30 Jan, 2017 03:27pm
Dylan has affected almost all literary writers of the past half century, whether or not they have directly encountered
Updated 04 Feb, 2017 12:48pm
Countries left behind in the technological race need not worry; it is still possible to catch up
Published 29 Jan, 2017 06:34am
From literary festivals to conferences, nothing has been the same without the master storyteller
Updated 30 Jan, 2017 03:27pm
A collection of poetry that blurs the boundaries between the three Punjabs — east, west, and diasporic
Updated 16 Jan, 2020 11:27am
Looking beyond appearances to uncover the social hierarchy entrenched in the United States
Published 22 Jan, 2017 07:31am
Graphic novels have come a long way from the superhero comic book
Published 22 Jan, 2017 07:31am
Nayeema Mahjoor writes about the hardships faced by women in the disputed territory of Kashmir
Published 15 Jan, 2017 08:22am
Mustansar Hussain Tarrar spends a few days travelling across the sandscape and tells the tale with wit and perspective
Published 15 Jan, 2017 08:22am
New research on the Muhammad Bin Qasim narrative reveals the misassumptions with which generations have been raised
Published 15 Jan, 2017 08:22am
Leaving Pakistan for the United States in the 1970s deepens the connection between the author and her Islamic roots
Published 08 Jan, 2017 08:58am
Journalism takes an illustrative turn
Published 08 Jan, 2017 08:58am
Tracking the rise of the militant group that holds parts of the Middle East hostage
Published 08 Jan, 2017 08:58am
The objective of introducing the Sufi giant’s poetry to the modern reader is commendable even if it falls a little
Updated 01 Jan, 2017 11:12am
There is quite a lot going on in Pakistan’s capital city, otherwise known as the place where nothing much happens
Published 01 Jan, 2017 10:43am
The Urdu literary scene is flourishing on foreign shores, but literature itself does not seem to be at the heart of it
Published 01 Jan, 2017 10:43am
A slim book that, despite its brevity, takes an engaging trip into a city beloved by the literati of yore
Published 25 Dec, 2016 07:18am
There may be several reasons why a writer reaches the heights of popularity, but great writing is not necessarily one of
Published 25 Dec, 2016 07:18am
Pakistan’s publishing industry has done well by authors writing in Urdu, but those working in English appear to lag
Published 25 Dec, 2016 07:18am
Migration in South Asia seen through political, economic and cultural perspectives
Published 18 Dec, 2016 07:32am
How political correctness is killing literature in America
Updated 19 Dec, 2016 03:05pm
Analysing the argument which suggests that questioning extremism and militancy in Pakistan requires a radical rethinking
Published 18 Dec, 2016 07:32am
Getting to the heart of any written work involves more than merely absorbing its contents
Published 11 Dec, 2016 08:18am
While questions about the enigmatic writer’s life abound, there continues to be very little information on the man
Published 11 Dec, 2016 08:18am
One day, one event, seen through five very diverse points of view
Published 11 Dec, 2016 08:18am
Narratives of Afghan women are presented in a compilation of stories that is reflective of their deeper strength
Updated 03 Jun, 2018 02:48am
The true authorship of an Azerbaijani masterpiece comes up for debate, and the question of primary and secondary
Published 04 Dec, 2016 07:35am
A treatise on the city that presents its various faces — the historical, cultural, religious and political
Published 04 Dec, 2016 07:35am
Reading the life and times of Urdu’s pioneering female writer
Published 27 Nov, 2016 07:12am
When thoughts of a life less ordinary are packed up and put away in a house built on choices
Published 20 Nov, 2016 07:16am
Hazem Kandil’s book offers an analysis of the various facets of the Muslim Brotherhood movement
Published 20 Nov, 2016 07:16am
In efforts to craft favourable relationships in the emerging world order, Pakistani policymakers would do well to
Published 20 Nov, 2016 07:16am
Is the dearth of talented translators marginalising Urdu literature works from the global literary landscape?
Published 13 Nov, 2016 06:36am
Kishalay Bhattacharjee is the author of Blood on My Hands: Confessions of Staged Encounters that provides important...
Updated 13 Nov, 2016 10:43am
The rise of private transmissions has made it imperative to study the applicability of media laws in Pakistan
Published 06 Nov, 2016 06:47am
The story of how a family ripped apart by violence and war, spanning centuries and across continents, comes together
Published 06 Nov, 2016 06:47am
A compilation of rare images and journalistic, scholarly and personal writings on our cinema history
Published 06 Nov, 2016 06:47am
The history of the Pakistani Urdu novel is traced from 1947 onwards
Updated 30 Oct, 2016 07:53am
On some of the best short story writers and how their craft is executed
Published 30 Oct, 2016 07:27am
Mushtaq Bilal interviews contemporary authors writing in English, probing how their identities as Pakistanis inform the
Published 30 Oct, 2016 07:27am
A half-Sicilian, half-Puerto Rican chef from Chicago serves up popular Western foods with a decidedly halal touch
Published 23 Oct, 2016 07:42am
Amna K. Boheim worked in investment banking before turning to writing. She also writes a blog on life’s little
Published 23 Oct, 2016 07:42am
This is the first time that a musician has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature — raising the question whether
Published 23 Oct, 2016 07:42am
It’s all about following your heart … and who would know this better than our women in green
Published 16 Oct, 2016 07:57am
Zia Haider Rahman’s In the Light of What We Know is analysed as a study of the effort to transcend limitations of class,
Published 16 Oct, 2016 07:57am
An anthology that presents some of Intizar Husain’s works translated into English — fiction, essays, and a play
Published 16 Oct, 2016 07:57am
The question of cultural appropriation in literature is being raised by today’s young writers
Published 09 Oct, 2016 07:31am
The Mughal-era architecture of the city is studied as a manifestation of its culture through the centuries
Published 09 Oct, 2016 07:31am
Alys Faiz’s collection of essays sheds light a life filled with joy, turmoil, adventure, and of course, words
Published 09 Oct, 2016 07:31am
Sibte Hassan, whose birth centennial falls this year, viewed the world through the prism of leftist ideology without
Published 02 Oct, 2016 09:34am
A cache of audio recordings of Osama bin Laden is analysed by Flagg Miller
Published 02 Oct, 2016 09:34am
South Asian writers are rising to the challenge of changing the way populist media views Muslims
Published 02 Oct, 2016 09:34am
One man’s tale of struggle and survival during the Chinese Cultural Revolution
Updated 25 Sep, 2016 07:40am
Raza Rumi is a Pakistani journalist and policy analyst who is currently Visiting International Scholar in Residence...
Updated 25 Sep, 2016 07:35am
Raza Rumi’s book charts the significant happenings of five tumultuous years in Pakistan’s politics
Updated 25 Sep, 2016 07:33am
Chris Cleave’s latest work of fiction centres on London during WWII, with characters that are as gritty as they are
Published 18 Sep, 2016 07:03am
A talented life cut short by mental illness,Vincent van Gogh’s magic endures through the
precious works he left behind
Published 18 Sep, 2016 07:03am
Hamid Khan’s ambitious volume that chronicles the judicial history of Pakistan is not without its shortcomings, yet
Published 18 Sep, 2016 07:03am
Collating notes from children’s accounts written during WWII, Children of War is a chilling read
Published 11 Sep, 2016 08:17am
Ali Akbar Natiq’s writings are his attempt to portray life as it is lived, with all its injustice, cruelty,
Updated 08 Jan, 2017 08:33am
A volume that puts together the human story behind the history of painting in the subcontinent by referencing what made
Published 11 Sep, 2016 08:17am
With works that dwelt on identifying violence in the colonial system, Frantz Fanon did not just theorise but also fought
Published 04 Sep, 2016 07:55am
Two of the three contradictions have remained the same: first, there is still a structural tension between the unitary
Published 04 Sep, 2016 07:55am
In this collection of essays edited by Christophe Jaffrelot, Pakistan’s myriad historical contradictions and struggles
Published 04 Sep, 2016 07:55am
A book that puts together work by more than 60 photographers, much of the photography encompassed in its pages is
Published 28 Aug, 2016 07:24am
John Dryden and Alexander Pope’s expressions of what constituted a great poem set an example that has been followed by
Published 28 Aug, 2016 07:24am
The Harry Potter series is revived with the play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Published 28 Aug, 2016 07:24am
Sid Mittra teaches how to not buzz around aimlessly, but get to work, in his quirky self-help book
Published 21 Aug, 2016 06:57am
An illustrated biography of Gandhi tells much that is not so well known about him
Published 21 Aug, 2016 06:57am
A look at traditional occupations in India and their practitioners who are losing relevance as times change
Published 21 Aug, 2016 06:57am
Putting Pakistan Right is a book that is somewhat restrained due to its format, yet contains ample content worth
Published 21 Aug, 2016 06:57am
The timeless works of Philip K. Dick evoke a sense of pure wonder about what it might mean to be human
Published 21 Aug, 2016 06:57am
This book is a corpus of selected articles by Sultan M. Hali, Pakistan Air Force veteran turned journalist, who aims
Published 21 Aug, 2016 06:56am
Shaukat Aziz chronicles his high-profile career in a volume that lacks an in-depth voice
Published 21 Aug, 2016 06:56am
A well-intentioned but poorly executed obsession with simplifying things is what undermines Thing Explainer
Published 14 Aug, 2016 08:10am
Their posts are shared by hundreds, followed by thousands and commented on by numerous; Facebook has given rise to a new
Published 14 Aug, 2016 08:10am
A promising debut novel, providing incisive psychological insight on abuse
Published 14 Aug, 2016 08:10am
Elena Ferrante’s quartet of novels is a literary sensation because of the depth and complexity in the writer’s craft —
Published 14 Aug, 2016 08:10am
An anthology of Mubashir Ali Zaidi’s work published in Jang, this slim volume emerges as an idiosyncratic genre of
Published 14 Aug, 2016 08:10am
The cabinet exercised an important role in economic issues during the years after Partition
Updated 14 Aug, 2016 08:32am
A lengthy, complicated court battle has finally drawn to a close. This one had, at its centre, a treasure chest of...
Published 14 Aug, 2016 08:10am
Years after his death, Muzaffar Ali Syed is reintroduced to the realm of Urdu literary criticism with a collection of
Published 14 Aug, 2016 08:10am
Zaffar Junejo pens down the largely unheard, painful story of a generation in Sindh that fought for its political belief
Published 07 Aug, 2016 06:43am
An in-depth study of the exploitation of bonded labour in domestic situations
Published 07 Aug, 2016 06:43am
