With a protagonist impossible not to like and enjoyably ranging across aspects of Karachi’s art, culture, landscape and
Updated 18 Mar, 2019 09:05am
Given the circumstances, the fact that the 10th edition of the KLF took place is an achievement in itself.
Updated 10 Mar, 2019 11:05am
Nadeem Farooq Paracha’s latest book encapsulates the pivotal events that have shaped present Pakistani society
Published 10 Mar, 2019 09:19am
Suroor Barabankvi’s collected works make clear that the late poet was one who illuminated the personal as much as the
Published 10 Mar, 2019 09:14am
I’ve just returned from my first Lahore Literary Festival (LLF), having previously attended four in Karachi since...
Published 10 Mar, 2019 09:05am
An exhaustively researched account that highlights the role of Pakistan’s military in global peacekeeping efforts, with
Published 03 Mar, 2019 07:08am
I arrived at Chennai airport from Dubai early on a mid-January morning to be greeted at immigration by a smiling...
Published 03 Mar, 2019 07:08am
Compiled by his daughter, a book brings together the best of the towering intellectual’s essays on his land, his people
Published 03 Mar, 2019 07:08am
An incredibly endearing Young Adult novel with a sweet, sad, hopeful heart deals sensitively with Islamophobia and
Published 03 Mar, 2019 07:07am
Despite shortcomings in its programming and attendance this year, the Lahore Literary Festival is a welcome blessing in
Published 03 Mar, 2019 07:07am
Undeniably one of the most powerful voices to have graced the world of Urdu, Zehra Nigah’s latest offering reinforces
Published 24 Feb, 2019 09:29am
A morbidly funny modern noir combines family saga, quirky crime thriller and dark comedy, but is also a sharply incisive
Published 24 Feb, 2019 09:23am
A stimulating finale to a trilogy on humans past, present and future meditates on what it means to be human in the age
Published 24 Feb, 2019 09:17am
In a year of relentlessly pursuing good novels, some of the most interesting and amazing novels I read came,...
Published 24 Feb, 2019 09:14am
A contemporary Pakistani adaptation of Pride and Prejudice works because of its attention to detail when it comes to
Published 17 Feb, 2019 07:38am
A good source for understanding the Indian perspective and narrative on important Indo-Pak issues, a research book falls
Published 17 Feb, 2019 07:38am
A fan’s exploration of the life and career of the iconic cinema superstar
Published 17 Feb, 2019 07:38am
Many years ago, after becoming a father I proudly announced it to my friends. Someone close but senior in years...
Published 17 Feb, 2019 07:38am
The latest entry on the literary festival circuit is the Adab Festival which took place in Karachi from February 1 to 3.
Published 10 Feb, 2019 07:20am
A murder mystery and exploration of adolescence, fraught with uncertainty about one’s identity and sexuality, against
Published 10 Feb, 2019 07:20am
A French anthropologist argues that rising global urban unrest is mainly because of a waning of public trust
Published 10 Feb, 2019 07:20am
Much has been said about the difficulties one faces in translating poetry. Yes, it is a daunting task, particularly...
Published 10 Feb, 2019 07:20am
Shahrah-i-Khubaani Ke Musaafir Salman Rashid The travelogue author’s account — an Urdu translation of his book
Published 10 Feb, 2019 07:20am
A real-life tale about reinventing coffee works as a window into Yemeni culture and the crisis that it’s caught
Published 03 Feb, 2019 08:32am
Bollywood star Twinkle Khanna’s debut novel leaves much to be desired. While the story does have some quotable lines,
Published 03 Feb, 2019 08:32am
History through eight classical Urdu poets whose hearts remained ensconced in ‘Dilli’ even when they were forced to
Published 03 Feb, 2019 08:32am
Reality being a fiction that we apprehend in a combination of intertwined languages — which include scientific...
Updated 04 Feb, 2019 11:08am
A tour de force for those unfamiliar with the extreme sport, a book about scaling the peak called The Ogre is also about
Published 27 Jan, 2019 07:01am
A slim new volume of Urdu poetry stitches together a tapestry of poetic forms and speaks in a contemporary diction
Updated 28 Jan, 2019 10:37am
Mustansar Hussain Tarar’s latest novel embarks on an allegorical journey to deal with issues of religious interpretation
Published 27 Jan, 2019 07:01am
Eminent poet and feminist Fahmida Riaz was gentle and warm in demeanour and elegantly understated in appearance, but...
Published 27 Jan, 2019 07:01am
Pashaimaan Chahatein — Three Novels Aziz Aijaz Set in modern Pakistan, the titular tale tells of a cricket fan and the
Published 27 Jan, 2019 07:01am
Solitude, deep introspection and an existentialist sense of each passing moment set the accomplished author’s work
Published 20 Jan, 2019 08:58am
A debut novel traces the lives of four pampered Afghan sisters over four decades as well as that of a rebellious maid
Published 20 Jan, 2019 08:58am
The West’s Worst Fear Ali Ahmed In this socio-political comment on the “presence of Muslims which agitates the minds
Published 20 Jan, 2019 08:58am
Reading the third book in a fantasy series first actually whets the appetite for the other parts
Published 20 Jan, 2019 08:58am
Allama Muhammad Iqbal and his times influenced the Urdu poetic tradition in a unique way, although the great poets ...
Published 20 Jan, 2019 08:58am
A nuanced detailing of the tragedies and ordinariness of daily life on the Line of Control is also political commentary
Published 13 Jan, 2019 07:23am
A new collection of Punjabi short stories provides an opening to explore how Partition has lived on as an active memory
Published 13 Jan, 2019 07:23am
Reissued after 40 years, a memoir-like novel still seems fresh and emotive, but its brevity cannot do justice to its
Published 13 Jan, 2019 07:23am
In my last column I explored what happens to the five senses in a digital age via a reading of Mohsin Hamid’s Exit...
Published 13 Jan, 2019 07:23am
An English translation of a one-of-its-kind novel from Bhopal, once dubbed one of the ‘best untranslated novels’ in the
Published 06 Jan, 2019 06:33am
Cecelia Ahern’s collection of short stories has a great deal of whimsy, but is often too predictable and heavy-handed
Published 06 Jan, 2019 06:33am
Two books on the global superstar have recently been released, but only one of them gives you a real insight into the
Published 06 Jan, 2019 06:33am
There are oceans of writing in Urdu and Persian that haven’t been translated into other languages. A slew of...
Published 06 Jan, 2019 06:33am
M.A. Jinnah: The Outside View Muhammad Reza Kazimi The veteran historian, a retired professor of the University
Published 06 Jan, 2019 06:33am
Master novelist Haruki Murakami’s latest book, at its core, is about the melancholic nature of the creative process but
Published 30 Dec, 2018 07:09am
An exciting new book delves into the lives of the real, flesh-and-blood women who were indispensable to the formation
Published 30 Dec, 2018 07:09am
Daughters of the Sun: Empresses, Queens and Begums of the Mughal Empire is Ira Mukhoty’s startling insight into ...
Published 30 Dec, 2018 07:09am
They were born five years apart. Both Leos, both poets, prose writers, radicals. I had barely stopped mourning one...
Published 30 Dec, 2018 07:09am
Are people who need people really the luckiest people in the world? Not a chance, according to Lane Moore, author of...
Published 23 Dec, 2018 07:22am
A look at why young Christians, despite being descendants of the soil, feel themselves alienated from Pakistani society
Published 23 Dec, 2018 07:22am
Mandatory reading for practitioners of advertising and laypersons alike about an industry in turmoil
Published 23 Dec, 2018 07:22am
The struggles of a wife and mother of three when her husband decides to give up his corporate job and venture
Published 23 Dec, 2018 07:22am
A majestic debut novel by a longtime apprentice of writing is a devastating portrayal of malignant male sexuality and
Published 16 Dec, 2018 07:24am
Khalid Hosseini deviates from his usual style of fictional prose to offer a heartfelt tribute to refugees in the form
Published 16 Dec, 2018 07:24am
An evocative novel about the underprivileged and marginalised in Sindh reads like a vivid screenplay
Published 16 Dec, 2018 07:24am
A short, fidgety old man sporting a neatly trimmed grey beard and usually wearing a lounge suit with a cheerful tie,...
Published 16 Dec, 2018 07:24am
Altaf Fatima, who passed away last week, never received her due despite a formidable body of work. But she was much
Published 09 Dec, 2018 07:06am
A remarkable new novel from Michael Ondaatje asks important questions on the nature of war and victory, violence and
Published 09 Dec, 2018 07:06am
An allegorical treatise on the human desire for freedom and the Sufi path
Published 09 Dec, 2018 07:06am
I love animals and I love books, but I tend to avoid novels about animals because I don’t enjoy crying. The world...
Published 09 Dec, 2018 07:06am
Chemage: Learn + Earn + Return, 1943-2018
Sh. Ghulam Abbas Cyclewala
In his autobiography, the author traces not...
Published 09 Dec, 2018 07:06am
The passing away last week of Fahmida Riaz, formidable poet, prose writer, translator, feminist and rights activist,
Published 02 Dec, 2018 07:04am
While the 11th International Urdu Conference itself was a success, most speakers, as always, did spoil the fun by
Published 02 Dec, 2018 07:04am
It’s a risky undertaking for a man to write in the female first-person, but one that the debut novelist pulls off with
Published 02 Dec, 2018 07:04am
If teaching literature is a challenge, then a greater challenge is teaching contemporary literature. Classics, by...
Published 02 Dec, 2018 07:04am
Khadija Mastoor’s classic novel Aangan receives a superb and nuanced new translation that is likely to garner even more
Published 25 Nov, 2018 07:03am
The Faiz International Festival that took place last weekend was not without issues, but its significance as a temporary
Published 25 Nov, 2018 07:03am
An anthology of budding writers captures the social and cultural diversity of Indian life
Published 25 Nov, 2018 07:03am
Some years ago I visited the English department of a university in Pakistan and, on entering the chairman’s ...
Updated 26 Nov, 2018 03:32pm
An attempt to explore existentialism, social pressures and the obsession with youth is let down by poor worldbuilding
Published 25 Nov, 2018 07:03am
Despite her colonial prejudices, Charlotte Canning, wife of the governor-general during the Great ‘Mutiny’ of 1857,
Published 18 Nov, 2018 06:57am
The development of the pro-Hindu RSS and its influence on Indian politics
Published 18 Nov, 2018 06:57am
An authorised biography that shies away from controversial issues
Published 18 Nov, 2018 06:57am
As a writer who happens to be a woman, I’ve often been asked to comment on ‘women’s writing’ in interviews...
Published 18 Nov, 2018 06:57am
An adaptation of Jane Austen’s influential novel offers refreshing Muslim representation...
Published 11 Nov, 2018 08:38am
Despite some shortcomings, a valuable addition to the existing scholarship on the country’s energy scenario
Published 11 Nov, 2018 08:38am
Let’s pause here and carve it on our cultural consciousness that poetry — especially Urdu...
Published 11 Nov, 2018 08:38am
Crime fiction writer Megan Abbott’s latest thriller is a novel of astounding economy that is artfully crafted...
Published 11 Nov, 2018 08:38am
A glimpse into the evolution of the BJP and right-wing politics in India
Published 11 Nov, 2018 08:38am
Incense and Echoes
Fazul Suleiman Kazi
This anthology of writings covers a vast spectrum of subjects, from ...
Published 11 Nov, 2018 07:05am
My short stint as a young man in Central and Eastern Europe during 1995 and 1996 was indeed rewarding — both...
Published 11 Nov, 2018 07:05am
A timely book adds to the growing literature being written from the Pakistani perspective on the Indus Waters Treaty
Published 11 Nov, 2018 07:05am
Clifton Bridge: Stories of Innocence and Experience from Pakistan Irshad AbdulKadir A collection of 10 short stories
Published 04 Nov, 2018 07:06am
In his third novel, Mohammed Hanif challenges us to recognise the absurdity of what we have become while making us
Published 04 Nov, 2018 07:06am
Former diplomat Saad Rashidul Khairi narrates his eventful life, but through it tells of his world and changing times
Published 04 Nov, 2018 07:06am
How fair is this? On Halloween, we creep into Stephen King’s lair for terrors and scares, but here he is offering...
Published 04 Nov, 2018 07:06am
Short stories in Punjabi that attempt to articulate the aspirations and struggles of upwardly mobile groups as well as
Updated 16 Jan, 2020 11:27am
Shabbar Zaidi’s compilation of articles provides insight into the problems of Pakistan’s fiscal and forex policies
Published 04 Nov, 2018 07:06am
An exciting book by an accomplished anthropologist lays bare the history of petroglyphs in Sindh through millennia
Published 04 Nov, 2018 07:06am
Despite its self-serving nature and the withholding of significant information, former intelligence chief Gen Asad
Published 28 Oct, 2018 07:09am
In his entertaining latest collection of short stories, Sir Jeffrey Archer demonstrates he is not simply a gifted writer
Published 28 Oct, 2018 07:09am
Humans are limited in what they can experience and know by their ability to perceive through the five senses. What...
Published 28 Oct, 2018 07:09am
Thoroughly researched history told with the intimacy of fiction captures an era of great upheaval in the subcontinent
Published 28 Oct, 2018 07:09am
A dystopian novel imagines a future where a South Asian city is segregated along communal and caste lines
Published 28 Oct, 2018 07:09am
The science of publishing is distinct from the art of writing, but it is equally important for aspiring writers to
Published 28 Oct, 2018 07:09am
Oscar Wilde famously said that “the true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.” But the...
Published 28 Oct, 2018 07:09am
A new collection of 13 poignant short stories showcases the quietness with which Aamer Hussein portrays turmoil and
Published 21 Oct, 2018 08:34am