Tsitsi Dangarembga has been shortlisted for this year’s Booker prize for her novel This Mournable Body, which...
Published 11 Oct, 2020 07:01am
That sort of rapport between a writer and a bookseller has long vanished as have many of the shops, including the one I knew...
Published 11 Oct, 2020 07:01am
This ‘honour roll’ of some of the most well known personalities associated with the Sindh Madressatul...
Published 11 Oct, 2020 07:01am
A debut novel that shows promise when focusing on the human condition rather than on clichéd themes of drug-running...
Published 11 Oct, 2020 07:01am
An anthology of essays on Pakistani cinema raises the question: what happens to
a society when its cinema dies?...
Published 11 Oct, 2020 07:01am
A collection of writings on those personalities of Pakistan who had, in Immanuel Kant’s words, “the courage to know”, or emerge
Published 04 Oct, 2020 08:39am
Everywhere, there are some politicians who take to writing at an opportune time in their careers. They write on...
Published 04 Oct, 2020 08:39am
A novel about a society where bodily choices are made for women is set in a strange dystopian world. Or is it?
Published 04 Oct, 2020 08:39am
This year is the 1,000th anniversary of Ferdowsi’s death, the epic poet whose magnificent Shahnama has shaped not only culture
Published 04 Oct, 2020 08:39am
George Floyd’s death in May sparked global outrage and brought centre stage the prevailing systemic inequalities...
Published 27 Sep, 2020 07:09am
In a tale that exhibits the familiar trope of love between a middle-class girl and an upper-class boy, Sara...
Published 27 Sep, 2020 07:09am
The Covid-19 pandemic was initially hailed as ‘the great equaliser.’ But is it really?
Published 27 Sep, 2020 07:09am
A beautifully written Urdu memoir is part personal history of a former bureaucrat and part analysis of Pakistan’s faultlines from
Published 27 Sep, 2020 07:09am
An absorbing fairytale of the power of love over cultural dissonance and a woman’s strength of character...
Published 20 Sep, 2020 06:56am
A pioneering and riveting account, of the mostly Muslim Indian soldiers who fought in the Second World War, is a labour of love...
Published 20 Sep, 2020 06:56am
The finalists for this year’s Booker Prize have been announced, with six titles chosen from a longlist of 13 ...
Published 20 Sep, 2020 06:56am
Declan Walsh’s recollections of Pakistan, despite its personal digressions, offers a rare collage of Pakistan’s most...
Published 20 Sep, 2020 06:56am
A tribute to one of the most prominent poets of the Sindhi language...
Published 13 Sep, 2020 06:52am
In this column, I want to discuss a new book I co-edited with my colleagues Nafhesa Ali and Richard Phillips (both...
Updated 13 Sep, 2020 07:18am
A fictional Urdu novella reflects the sentiments and fears of the people of Gwadar
about their future...
Updated 13 Sep, 2020 07:18am
A bi-cultural novel about two Egyptian sisters set in the post-Arab Spring world explores timeless issues of love and longing...
Updated 13 Sep, 2020 07:20am
In Pakistan, those citizens who feel concerned about the rapid deterioration happening in almost every walk of life,...
Published 06 Sep, 2020 07:02am
A recent book explores the lives of select female singers of Pakistan to gain insight into the country’s sociology and its...
Updated 07 Sep, 2020 04:24pm
An Urdu book narrates Karachi’s glorious heritage via the tales behind the naming of its streets, indicating how cities...
Published 06 Sep, 2020 07:02am
Ben Lerner’s final instalment of his autofiction trilogy is as big-brained as it is large-hearted and goes beyond excavating...
Published 06 Sep, 2020 07:02am
An International Booker Prize-shortlisted novel about a family’s travails following Iran’s Islamic Revolution paints...
Published 30 Aug, 2020 08:35am
Most of us know that a lughat is an Urdu/Arabic/Persian equivalent of a dictionary, but many might not know what a...
Published 30 Aug, 2020 08:35am
A former Pakistani diplomat presents his ringside view of political developments in Afghanistan over the past two decades...
Published 30 Aug, 2020 08:35am
Abubaker Sheikh stands apart from the run-of-the-mill Urdu travel writers in Pakistan. Like the best writers, his lates...
Published 30 Aug, 2020 08:35am
Sometimes, reading a chance remark that asserts a surprising claim persuades us to reread a text to see if we’d...
Published 23 Aug, 2020 07:15am
A new book provides a historical perspective on what to expect from US-Indo relations vis-a-vis a rising China...
Published 23 Aug, 2020 07:15am
A story of two families divided by race but united by tragedy, that takes an unflinching look at the repercussions of racism...
Published 23 Aug, 2020 07:15am
August 21 is the 13th anniversary of the death of Qurratulain Hyder, often dubbed ‘the doyenne of Urdu writers.’ Her niece...
Published 23 Aug, 2020 07:15am
The potion people were given to consume over the decades was prepared by evenly mixing the majority faith...
Published 16 Aug, 2020 07:02am
Delhi-based writer and activist Sadia Dehlvi passed away on Aug 5, at the age of 63, after...
Published 16 Aug, 2020 07:02am
A former British prosecutor’s memoir offers an inspiring account of fighting racism, misogyny and systemic injustice...
Published 16 Aug, 2020 07:02am
A shape-shifting novel traverses band culture, sociology and politics to paint a sprawling picture of the United States over...
Updated 17 Aug, 2020 12:03pm
How interesting, it is a text that begets aesthetic expressions in the sphere of visual creativity. Today, the several hundred...
Updated 09 Aug, 2020 07:29am
Despite his credentials as a conservative, religious scholar, Deputy Nazir Ahmad too fell victim to charges of blasphemy and...
Published 09 Aug, 2020 06:42am
Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, a historical novel attempts to take us inside the family life of the greatest...
Updated 09 Aug, 2020 12:44pm
A superb new book about a remarkable family of scholars fills in an important gap in our society’s spiritual, intellectual...
Updated 10 Aug, 2020 11:57am
Amazing similarities between London of 1665 and New York City of 2020 are evidenced in Daniel Defoe’s classic book documenting...
Updated 31 Jul, 2020 07:30am
A cultural collaboration between the Permanent Mission of Pakistan to the United Nations and Nestle, this beautifully...
Updated 31 Jul, 2020 07:30am
Longing for anywhere else but the place I’m in is a feeling I’m deeply familiar with. During the lockdown it becomes more...
Updated 31 Jul, 2020 07:30am
August 1 was the 20th death anniversary of revolutionary Urdu poet Ali Sardar Jafri, who was influenced by both Marx and Iqbal...
Updated 31 Jul, 2020 07:30am
A collection of interlinked short stories about the residents of an apartment block explores the intricacies of modern lives...
Updated 31 Jul, 2020 07:30am
One silver lining of the ongoing travel restrictions is that staying home has let me catch up with some reading....
Published 26 Jul, 2020 07:10am
A Turkish-origin scholar traces the stagnation of the Muslim world to the primacy of the ulema-state alliance...
Published 26 Jul, 2020 07:10am
A Booker Prize-longlisted author summons her younger self to write a semi-fictionalised autobiography...
Published 26 Jul, 2020 07:10am
Stephen Fry’s entertaining follow-up book about Greek legends features heroes who have made a far more indelible name for the...
Published 26 Jul, 2020 07:10am
A book that takes readers back to a time when Karachi was a cleaner, less crowded, spacious and better kept city. The author...
Published 26 Jul, 2020 07:10am
It seems that the world has finally begun to follow us. As has happened to Pakistan for decades unending — with a...
Published 19 Jul, 2020 06:46am
A book challenges our understanding of how people identified themselves before the advent of nation-states...
Published 19 Jul, 2020 06:46am
Pervez Tahir’s monograph on an influential but controversial economist offers insights into some key issues in developme...
Published 19 Jul, 2020 06:46am
An English rendition of some of the Kashmiri folk tales captures the colloquial textures of the Kashmiri language and brings to...
Published 19 Jul, 2020 06:46am
Why are the country’s English-language fiction writers more celebrated abroad than at home?...
Published 12 Jul, 2020 06:58am
A co-written Young Adult novel challenges stereotypes, of young people as politically apathetic, of inter-cultural...
Published 12 Jul, 2020 06:58am
A serving general presents a largely fair and balanced view of Pakistan’s ongoing issues in its largest province and suggests...
Published 12 Jul, 2020 06:58am
But, for the unquiet heart and brain, A use in measured language lies; The sad mechanic exercise, Like dull...
Updated 12 Jul, 2020 07:28pm
At first glance, the title Collect Moments, Not Things: Ideas and Inspiration for Creating a Life to Remember by...
Published 05 Jul, 2020 07:04am
A compilation of Sadequain’s artistic interpretations of Mirza Ghalib’s poetry delights...
Published 05 Jul, 2020 07:04am
A book of essays presents the other side of the story, heart-warming and funny accounts
of women evading the pressures of...
Published 05 Jul, 2020 07:04am
Striking paintings and poignant prose bring to life the true story of a young couple’s struggles through 20th century China...
Published 05 Jul, 2020 07:04am
In an unpublished essay composed some 10 years ago, titled ‘The Sycorax Syndrome’, English poet Christopher Middleton
Published 28 Jun, 2020 06:56am
Stuck at home? Struggling to write? A virtual world beckons you to stories and the craft of storytellers
Published 28 Jun, 2020 06:56am
A former Indian civil servant’s book on Balochistan is among the most well-researched and balanced books on the subject
Published 28 Jun, 2020 06:56am
While it skimps on magical realism and psychological tone, Ta-Nehisi Coates’s first book of intricate historical fiction
Published 28 Jun, 2020 06:56am
Asif Farrukhi left us. When I heard the news from my younger sister, it seemed to me that the whole realm of being had come to a grinding halt...
Published 14 Jun, 2020 06:16am
Many subcultures use secret languages to create cohesion within the community and to keep themselves safe from outsiders...
Published 14 Jun, 2020 06:16am
S.M. Shahid’s pen sketches provide insight into individuals who have enriched the non-political, non-religious, softer...
Published 14 Jun, 2020 06:16am
Edward Snowden’s autobiography fills the gap in the narrative about him, and his disclosures about government digital...
Published 14 Jun, 2020 06:16am
Jameel Akhtar’s book on the towering literary icon Qurratulain Hyder showcases years of diligent research...
Published 07 Jun, 2020 06:55am
A desi romance novel almost manages to pull off a genre most South Asian writers do not venture into...
Published 07 Jun, 2020 06:55am
Asif Farrukhi, who passed away on June 1, was more than just a fiction writer, an essayist, a critic, a translator or a literary festival organiser. He was truly a giant of global literature...
Published 07 Jun, 2020 06:55am
“All writers live in a dolphin-like progression, above and below the waterline, of isolation and intense...
Updated 08 Jun, 2020 03:59pm
Tourism is one of the industries hit hardest by this coronavirus pandemic. Experts predict that foreign travel may...
Published 31 May, 2020 01:38pm
Former BBC and FT correspondent Kim Ghattas traces the current problems of the Middle East to three key events from 1979...
Published 31 May, 2020 01:38pm
Afzal Ahmed Syed has done great service to our literary heritage by excavating and translating vintage couplets from often unfairly dismissed poets...
Published 31 May, 2020 01:38pm
Aamer Hussein’s first book of Urdu stories sustains his lifelong engagement of writing about the life of the other with aesthetic, narrative and ethical care...
Published 31 May, 2020 01:38pm
Prof Navid Shahzad has recently recalled in one of her writings what George Orwell said soon after the Second World...
Published 24 May, 2020 05:26am
An important contribution to Pakistan’s cultural history, a new book is more than a simple documentation of historic architecture
Published 24 May, 2020 05:26am
A sociologist looks at the common problems faced by women in Pakistani society and shines a light...
Published 24 May, 2020 05:26am
An award-winning author writes an accessible and entertaining book, chock-full of facts and historical...
Published 24 May, 2020 05:26am
Voyager: A Journey to Self and Love
Khurram Shahzad
This debut collection of poetry is divided into two sections,...
Published 17 May, 2020 04:55am
In this grim atmosphere of a worldwide pandemic and the numbing effect of lockdowns, reading Mirza Asadullah Khan...
Updated 19 May, 2020 03:13pm
A book looks at the plight of Quetta’s Hazara community through untold and seemingly incomplete stories
Published 17 May, 2020 04:55am
A Ponzi scheme and the existential anxieties of rudderless, privileged North Americans, propel...
Published 17 May, 2020 04:55am
Nadeem F. Paracha attempts to trace the evolution of Sufism in Pakistan and how its appeal has often been used by...
Published 17 May, 2020 04:55am
A well-respected historian presents brief historical stories told in lucid prose that counter generalisations and...
Published 10 May, 2020 06:43am
The new novel by S.K. Tremayne is another well-crafted and hugely enjoyable suspense thriller, which pulls you...
Published 10 May, 2020 06:43am
Maham Javaid, whose short story ‘The Tallest Woman’ won the first Zeenat Haroon Rashid Writing Prize for Women...
Published 10 May, 2020 06:43am
News of death, especially if unrelated to the dreaded coronavirus, seems all the more dismal...
Published 10 May, 2020 06:43am
William Dalrymple’s curated book accompanying the first large exhibition of ‘Company Painting’ reveals the obscured...
Published 10 May, 2020 06:43am
The eminence claimed for Lampedusa is based on referring to his novel as that by a Sicilian writing about Sicily.
Updated 03 May, 2020 12:40pm
A searing and unapologetic work challenges accepted social ‘truths’ of an increasingly polarised West and offers...
Published 03 May, 2020 07:08am
A Pakistani novella that bills itself as interactive has problems with characterisations, but is an easy enough...
Published 03 May, 2020 07:08am
A research-based treatise on how rural Pakistanis in Sargodha district vote turns many assumptions on their heads...
Published 03 May, 2020 07:08am
Everywhere in the world, people with a literary bent of mind sometimes name their children after poets or writers....
Updated 26 Apr, 2020 11:42am
Ronan Farrow vividly and meticulously details how the film producer and convicted serial rapist evaded...
Published 26 Apr, 2020 06:06am
