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NON-FICTION: CRACKING THE GLASS CEILING?
A Russian scholar’s exploration of the rule of four female heads of government in South Asia makes for fruitful reading
FICTION: ‘A HEARTBEAT DRIVES YOU MAD’
A new novel presents a very believable oral history of a fictional band from the 1970s, with all the sex, drugs, rock
NON-FICTION: THE POLITICS OF CONSTRUCTED IDENTITIES
Javed Jabbar’s latest book attempts to deal with Pakistan’s ‘image’ and integration problems, but is less than scholarly
COLUMN: A LIFE OF COURAGE
Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina died in May 2019 at the young age of 48 but, in his short lifetime, he made as ...
NON-FICTION: REIMAGINING THE POLITICS OF POWER
An anthology of essays on the critical challenges facing Pakistan tries to identify the reasons for the chronic problems
FICTION: HANDING THE REINS TO THE READER
A celebrated Tamil novelist writes two sequels to his own award-winning and vilified novel and allows the reader
ESSAY: THE NATURE OF FOLKLORE
Mountains, forests, the earth and waters in Pakistan’s enchanting folk tales are characters in their own right
COLUMN: ALL IS NOT QUIET
I begin with a qualification that Pakistan’s intellectual scene — academic, artistic, literary and social — is...
BOOKS IN BRIEF
Muhammad (PBUH): Role Model for Humanity Professor Muhammad Rafi A simply written, easy-to-read-in-one-go summation
FICTION: THE INDOMITABLE LAALE
A new novel about Bahadur Shah Zafar’s court and one of his concubines goes further than most popular historical fiction
FICTION: HOW WE GOT HERE
The psychiatrist author of an award-winning collection of short stories isn’t interested in the endings of stories —
NON-FICTION: THE POLITICS OF ACTING
A new book explores the nexus between Indian politics and Bollywood
COLUMN: A BOUQUET OF POETRY
Have you ever looked at your bookshelf and noticed how many titles by women have made it there? Not many, I would...
FICTION: RISING FROM THE ASHES
Nasir Abbas Nayyar’s latest collection of short stories uses symbolism to code real life social experiences into pieces
NON-FICTION: ON THE RIGHT TRACKS
A delightful travelogue not only captures the essence of long-distance train travel but imbues the reader with the
NON-FICTION: FOOD FOR THOUGHT
An Iranian philosopher ponders about existence and the difference between thinking and philosophy, among other things
COLUMN: ELECTRONIC ILLUSIONS
In her polyvocal novel The Runaways, Fatima Bhutto examines Pakistan’s fluidity and reinvention in a digital age...
NON-FICTION: TAKING NO PRISONERS
Former cricketer Shahid Afridi’s memoirs of his career are as freewheeling and explosive as his batting and will likely
FICTION: NEW BEGINNINGS, UNEXPECTED ENDINGS
A debut collection of short stories ranges in topic from nostalgia and politics to media and sexual abuse, but mainly
NON-FICTION: BITTER PILLS TO SWALLOW
A respected police officer boils down Pakistan’s various governance challenges to an elite capture of the state and
COLUMN: DISCOVERING KRISHNA SOBTI
Partition is not the end, but a beginning for Krishna Sobti’s elegiac and lyrical A Gujarat Here, A Gujarat There,...