Excavating archival documents and maps, a recent book offers a wealth of source material on Afghanistan’s fraught relationship...
Published 11 Feb, 2024 09:26am
It is often forgotten that, in a social setting, we generally live under the tall shadows of constructed realities. But to say...
Published 11 Feb, 2024 09:22am
Pervez Hoodbhoy’s recent book on the birth of the idea of Pakistan and its shape-shifting over time, is a clinical academic...
Published 04 Feb, 2024 09:38am
An absorbing new Pakistani novel spans timelines from 1964 to 2019 and follows the lives of four friends, painting remarkably...
Updated 04 Feb, 2024 06:38pm
A recent book analyses how a changing socio-spatial landscape is affecting the nature of political relations in Punjab
Published 04 Feb, 2024 09:22am
Muhammad Ziauddin was an exceptionally fine man, a courageous journalist and a watchful editor. We had known each other for many
Published 04 Feb, 2024 09:18am
A re-release of the English translation of a 1974 Palestinian novel is a stark reminder of the brutality of the Israeli occupation
Published 28 Jan, 2024 09:35am
A forensic search and rescue expert takes readers through his day-to-day work experiences and his life
Published 28 Jan, 2024 09:28am
A recent book by a Pakistani author delves into China’s culture and history to try and explain its economic model, along with the
Published 28 Jan, 2024 09:22am
This past year I designed an undergraduate course that I called ‘The Poetry of Love’. One of the challenges of the course was how
Published 28 Jan, 2024 09:15am
A well-argued new book casts an expansive look at the history of technological development and argues that whether technology ends
Published 21 Jan, 2024 09:51am
A long-lost Urdu novel about the Lahore of the 1950s by one of Pakistan’s top filmmakers has been rediscovered and republished
Published 21 Jan, 2024 09:38am
A relatively slim volume belies the enormous value it contains in terms of documentation about the musical heritage of Pakistan...
Published 21 Jan, 2024 09:32am
It is difficult to reckon the breadth of scholarship once commonplace in the knowledge centres of pre-colonial India.
Published 21 Jan, 2024 09:21am
A book makes a formidable effort to collect information and trace sources on the history of the Hindu Sahi dynasty that ruled a...
Published 14 Jan, 2024 09:04am
A new book gathers in one place important and interesting information on Karachi’s first planned neighbourhoods — Nazimabad...
Published 14 Jan, 2024 08:59am
A coming-of-age memoir about religious intolerance, discrimination and violence in India echoes patterns of persecution in...
Published 14 Jan, 2024 08:50am
The bard famously wrote: “The lunatic, the lover, and the poet/ Are of imagination all compact/ One sees more devils than
Published 14 Jan, 2024 08:25am
A stimulating book takes on the fallacies and flawed philosophies propounded by Pakistan’s elite in order to retain power over
Published 07 Jan, 2024 07:14am
The pop singer’s memoir is a moving story of survival, fame, love, loss and hope and yet seems to gloss over some important
Published 07 Jan, 2024 07:14am
An Urdu translation of an English novel about a tempestuous love affair between Shams Tabraiz and Rumi’s adopted daughter
Published 07 Jan, 2024 07:14am
I am homesick, I wrote to a friend in Kashmir who hasn’t left his native town in about a year, and is now ...
Published 07 Jan, 2024 07:14am
In a literary marketplace saturated with Eurocentric accounts of motherhood, Suma Din’s creative non-fiction work,...
Published 31 Dec, 2023 08:47am
An anthology of academic essays seeks to shift the focus away from the history of an imagined and unitary Pakistan, to the diverse
Published 31 Dec, 2023 08:47am
A collection of Urdu essays that combines satirical pieces with personality sketches and travelogues mostly misses the mark
Published 31 Dec, 2023 08:47am
Former British-Pakistani boxer Amir Khan’s autobiography reveals all about his career and the controversies that have dogged him
Published 31 Dec, 2023 08:47am
A collection of writings by one of the foremost Marxist peasant activists shows how, for him, the struggle of Sindh’s rural
Updated 31 Dec, 2023 08:50am
A well-planned, well-executed and easy-to-read debut Urdu novel about ambition and redemption spans from Karachi to Conakry
Updated 31 Dec, 2023 08:49am
Salman Rashid’s latest book could well be used as a travel guidebook as well as an absorbing bedtime read
Updated 31 Dec, 2023 08:49am
Some of us in Pakistan continue to speak out against the erasure of memory project pursued by the powerful elites ...
Updated 31 Dec, 2023 08:48am
A former army officer’s autobiography provides eye-witness testimony to various historical events and is written
Published 17 Dec, 2023 07:57pm
A coffee-table tome full of exquisite photography educates about the richness of the history of Persia while also being a work
Published 17 Dec, 2023 07:57pm
In my last column, I had suggested that, as evidenced from the events in Palestine, a permanent shift is taking ...
Updated 18 Dec, 2023 10:47pm
At its heart, an anthology of creative writing from Pakistan is a compendium of the Pakistani experience, as expressed through
Published 17 Dec, 2023 07:57pm
We don’t have a decent edition of this glowing text — and this despite the fact that we have the observation of the famous
Updated 10 Dec, 2023 10:04pm
A translation into Urdu of a two-volume Pashto treatise about Bacha Khan’s Khudai Khidmatgar movement,
Published 10 Dec, 2023 08:13am
Farrukh Yar’s tribute to Shah Hussain is an impressive feat of in-depth knowledge, research and analysis about the evolution
Published 10 Dec, 2023 08:13am
Renowned Indian filmmaker Muzaffar Ali’s autobiography is a portrayal of a bygone world as well as a search for his authentic self
Published 10 Dec, 2023 08:13am
Over the past many years in Lahore, be it at a book launch or any other political, social, cultural or literary...
Published 03 Dec, 2023 07:18am
An in-depth study examines the relationship between China, Iran and Pakistan, the impact of whose cooperation goes beyond
Published 03 Dec, 2023 07:18am
An experimental and innovative debut Urdu novel from Osama Siddique delves into the political
Published 03 Dec, 2023 07:18am
The two-day 5th Adab Festival was another opportunity for those starved of intellectual discussions
Published 03 Dec, 2023 07:18am
A book born out of an intellectual debate about the history of Pakistan grapples with questions about the country’s genesis...
Published 26 Nov, 2023 09:17am
An English translation of a well-regarded Urdu novel manages to capture social and political dynamics in pre-Partition central
Published 26 Nov, 2023 09:08am
A book adds to the growing literature on the reasons for the failures of the US to implement its vision of Afghanistan
Published 26 Nov, 2023 08:38am
The great 19th century Urdu and Farsi poet Ghalib was a master in creating neologisms. He excelled in pushing language to its...
Published 26 Nov, 2023 08:26am
A compilation of selected articles by late columnist Irfan Husain from nearly three decades showcases his consistently honest...
Updated 19 Nov, 2023 07:19pm
A book of autobiographical episodes is a brisk and witty narrative about adventures of all types, that leaves the reader craving
Published 19 Nov, 2023 07:50am
An English translation of a collection of short stories by eminent critic M.H. Askari showcases human beings trying to make the
Updated 19 Nov, 2023 02:07pm
With Palestine, we are in a unique time in history. Savagery is the domain of power, and history is replete with examples of human
Published 19 Nov, 2023 07:37am
A scholarly book looks up close at the workings of the power sector in Pakistan and mounts a bold intellectual charge at the most
Published 12 Nov, 2023 07:27am
A second collection inspired by Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s poetry uses the great Urdu poet’s poems as starting points for the English...
Published 12 Nov, 2023 07:22am
A book looks at the contributions of pre-Partition Punjab to Indian cinema
Published 12 Nov, 2023 07:18am
As autumn is edged away by winter in Islamabad, the 9th edition of the capital’s largest literary festival was organised by the...
Published 12 Nov, 2023 07:13am
Now in its fifth year, the Zeenat Haroon Rashid (ZHR) Writing Prize for Women 2023 has been awarded to writer Sana Mohsin for her
Published 12 Nov, 2023 07:11am
A collection of personal accounts of Sindhi Hindus, who had to uproot from their homeland after 1947 and replant themselves in...
Updated 05 Nov, 2023 09:32am
Simone de Beauvoir’s ‘lost’ near-autobiographical story of an enduring friendship that profoundly shaped her own perspectives on
Published 05 Nov, 2023 08:45am
A book by a journalist is a valuable resource for those seeking to understand the multifaceted nature of Islamist extremism in....
Published 05 Nov, 2023 08:32am
Sometimes the weight of the world’s problems forces you to seek the refuge of memory and fiction. And the uncertain weather,...
Published 05 Nov, 2023 08:23am
Karachi-born Farah Ali is the author of the short story collection People Want to Live (McSweeney’s, 2021). That book is being...
Published 29 Oct, 2023 07:03am
A first volume of a compilation of Ilyas Rashidi’s writings, originally published in the weekly film magazine Nigar, vividly...
Published 29 Oct, 2023 07:03am
An English translation of a woman’s story brings forth with great poignancy and spirit what a whole generation of children went...
Published 29 Oct, 2023 07:03am
Naomi Klein’s new book on her celebrity namesake, Naomi Wolf, examines the transformation of the latter from an influential...
Published 29 Oct, 2023 07:03am
The memoirs of Pakistan’s fourth governor general and first president, who died in exile, seek to present his version of history
Published 22 Oct, 2023 08:25am
A quick-read of a ‘psychological thriller’ novel is weighed down by unfathomable characterisation and poor narrative choices
Published 22 Oct, 2023 08:20am
A postmodernist novel explores themes of identity and meaning and offers a unique and rewarding reading experience
Published 22 Oct, 2023 08:12am
It was some time ago, when work related to community development would take me regularly to Multan, Bahawalpur, Layyah,...
Published 22 Oct, 2023 08:05am
From high-tech fighting machines to supercomputers and killer robots, science fiction has a lot to say about war....
Published 15 Oct, 2023 06:41am
A provocative family saga tries to connect the 1857 Indian ‘mutiny’ with rebellious ideas against Western imperialism
Published 15 Oct, 2023 06:41am
A diary of the experiences of a Pakistani doctor who worked in Nigeria for four years
in the 1960s is both amusing and dramat
Published 15 Oct, 2023 06:41am
The works of Jon Fosse, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature last week, include novels, poetry, essays, translations
Published 15 Oct, 2023 06:41am
The little book, which has even less than a hundred pages, talks of the importance of moral values, which,
Published 15 Oct, 2023 06:41am
Like most people, I love watching films, but can make little or no claim of critically understanding the medium —...
Published 08 Oct, 2023 07:28am
A gripping account of how one former American soldier helped his Afghan interpreter and thousands of others to flee the Taliban
Published 08 Oct, 2023 07:28am
An Urdu translation of the English memoirs of famous yesteryear actor Begum Khurshid Mirza paints a remarkable life lived
Published 08 Oct, 2023 07:28am
A biography structured as an expose of an American media mogul is a cautionary tale that reflects the intensely ugly ways in
Published 08 Oct, 2023 07:28am
A compilation about the historiography of Sindh under the Kalhora and other dynasties is an excellent exposition of primary...
Published 01 Oct, 2023 06:53am
A page-turner of a dystopian novel about a future one-party United Kingdom that harshly enforces a one-child policy is as much...
Published 01 Oct, 2023 06:53am
Dr Ishrat Husain’s hefty tome of collected writings primarily looks at the reasons of Pakistan’s recurring economic quagmire and..
Published 01 Oct, 2023 06:53am
The mushaira at Richmond, Virginia, in late August this year reminded me of gatherings from my childhood, when poets...
Published 24 Sep, 2023 05:25am
A novel by a veteran journalist and editor reflects on Pakistan’s media, politics and history
Published 24 Sep, 2023 05:25am
A Booker Prize long-listed debut novel is a poignant tale about an athlete’s coming-of-age, growing up and grief
Published 24 Sep, 2023 05:25am
A book by a former journalist takes the long view about the precarious position of journalists in Pakistan’s volatile border areas
Published 24 Sep, 2023 05:25am
In order to flourish and have existential permanence, a language needs both chroniclers and ambassadors, in addition...
Published 17 Sep, 2023 06:02am
A veteran journalist’s book reminds us that all that is served up in Pakistani textbooks is not the whole truth
Published 17 Sep, 2023 06:02am
A novel challenges expectations in a story built around friendships, envy, economic divides and people’s individual ways of
Published 17 Sep, 2023 06:02am
A book considers why Muslim states and societies show such a lack of tolerance when it comes to religious minorities or those who
Published 17 Sep, 2023 06:02am
In 1996, after climbing up a steep staircase, I first entered the India Club in London with my friends Anjali Mody...
Published 10 Sep, 2023 07:00am
An English translation of a book originally written by the grandson of the last Mughal king, Bahadur Shah Zafar, is well-produced
Published 10 Sep, 2023 07:00am
A memoir by a Pakistani woman is more than just about her juggling a career, marriage, abuse and her husband’s life-altering
Published 10 Sep, 2023 07:00am
An investigative journalist’s account of the ways in which elitism and oligarchic power structures have eroded the fabric and
Published 10 Sep, 2023 07:00am
Shahid Javed Burki’s latest book is a cornucopia of Pakistan’s geopolitical history and foresees a bright future for the country
Published 03 Sep, 2023 07:28am
A new novel takes on the difficult issue of acid violence in Pakistan without being preachy. But it is not for the faint of heart.
Published 03 Sep, 2023 07:23am
A beautifully produced coffee-table book takes readers on a visual journey of historic Jerusalem
Published 03 Sep, 2023 07:18am
As independence from British colonial rule swept across East Africa in the early 1960s and freedom was won in ...
Published 03 Sep, 2023 07:11am
A well-documented treatise, translated from the Sindhi original, provides a detailed account of the complex issues pertaining to
Published 27 Aug, 2023 09:05am
Set in Kerala and spanning over seven decades, a novel traverses stories about land, faith, class and love and immerses readers in
Published 27 Aug, 2023 09:01am
A reprint of a long out-of-publication book has the great A.H. Kardar himself recounting how the Pakistan cricket team cemented...
Published 27 Aug, 2023 08:57am
Amitav Ghosh’s latest work, a nonfiction book titled Smoke and Ashes, was published in India this July. Being in New Delhi at the
Published 27 Aug, 2023 08:53am
