I begin with a qualification that Pakistan’s intellectual scene — academic, artistic, literary and social — is...
Published 09 Jun, 2019 07:03am
Mountains, forests, the earth and waters in Pakistan’s enchanting folk tales are characters in their own right
Published 09 Jun, 2019 07:03am
A celebrated Tamil novelist writes two sequels to his own award-winning and vilified novel and allows the reader
Published 09 Jun, 2019 07:03am
An anthology of essays on the critical challenges facing Pakistan tries to identify the reasons for the chronic problems
Published 09 Jun, 2019 07:03am
Have you ever looked at your bookshelf and noticed how many titles by women have made it there? Not many, I would...
Published 02 Jun, 2019 07:16am
A new book explores the nexus between Indian politics and Bollywood
Published 02 Jun, 2019 07:16am
The psychiatrist author of an award-winning collection of short stories isn’t interested in the endings of stories —
Published 02 Jun, 2019 07:16am
A new novel about Bahadur Shah Zafar’s court and one of his concubines goes further than most popular historical fiction
Published 02 Jun, 2019 07:16am
In her polyvocal novel The Runaways, Fatima Bhutto examines Pakistan’s fluidity and reinvention in a digital age...
Published 26 May, 2019 06:15am
An Iranian philosopher ponders about existence and the difference between thinking and philosophy, among other things
Published 26 May, 2019 06:15am
A delightful travelogue not only captures the essence of long-distance train travel but imbues the reader with the
Published 26 May, 2019 06:15am
Nasir Abbas Nayyar’s latest collection of short stories uses symbolism to code real life social experiences into pieces
Published 26 May, 2019 06:15am
A debut collection of short stories ranges in topic from nostalgia and politics to media and sexual abuse, but mainly
Published 19 May, 2019 07:19am
Former cricketer Shahid Afridi’s memoirs of his career are as freewheeling and explosive as his batting and will likely
Published 19 May, 2019 07:19am
Partition is not the end, but a beginning for Krishna Sobti’s elegiac and lyrical A Gujarat Here, A Gujarat There,...
Published 19 May, 2019 07:19am
A respected police officer boils down Pakistan’s various governance challenges to an elite capture of the state and
Published 19 May, 2019 07:19am
Mauj-i-Saba Parveen Sultana Saba From a poet as adept with the paintbrush as she is with the pen, this collection
Published 12 May, 2019 07:02am
Yesterday, from a table piled with my favourite books, I retrieved a translation of The Four Dervishes. I had ...
Published 12 May, 2019 07:02am
A balanced and thought-provoking book psychoanalyses Pakistan’s most charismatic civilian leader since the Quaid
Published 12 May, 2019 07:02am
A coffee table book provides scintillating images that can help promote tourism to the country, but could have benefited
Published 12 May, 2019 07:02am
Uzma Aslam Khan’s latest novel can be a difficult read at times, but she deserves credit for her vast research and for
Published 12 May, 2019 07:02am
An unfinished manuscript by Anthony Burgess, exploring the social and moral panic caused by his novel A Clockwork...
Published 05 May, 2019 06:49am
Scattered between tales of simplistic women and misogynistic men, some stories leap from the pages and leave an
Published 05 May, 2019 06:49am
Mirza Waheed is a novelist and journalist from Kashmir. He speaks to Eos about his recently released novel Tell Her...
Published 05 May, 2019 06:49am
Mirza Waheed’s third novel is an exploration of moral dilemmas and existential issues and the element of guilt in human
Published 05 May, 2019 06:49am
The Glorious Traditions of St Patrick’s Menin Rodrigues
This memoir by a former student combines the history of...
Published 28 Apr, 2019 07:16am
Much of today’s English-language poetry seems to be written by people who believe themselves to be poets, but have...
Published 28 Apr, 2019 07:16am
Harris Khalique’s new collection of English poems establishes him as a much-needed strong voice among this generation
Published 28 Apr, 2019 07:16am
Quite aside from the charming flavour of its original Urdu diction, a new novel succeeds in stirring a deep emotional
Published 28 Apr, 2019 07:16am
Dr Jameel Jalibi passed away on April 19. He leaves behind an enormous legacy as a historian of literature, but also as
Published 28 Apr, 2019 07:16am
The Overstory, a complex environmental novel by Richard Powers, is the winner of this year’s Pulitzer Prize for...
Published 21 Apr, 2019 07:10am
It was about 25 years ago — a time of intense political tensions between Sindhi-speaking and non-Sindhi speaking...
Published 21 Apr, 2019 07:10am
A debut novel is only partially interesting and suffers from too many diversions that have nothing to do with the plot
Published 21 Apr, 2019 07:10am
A fitting and satisfying end to an epic trilogy of fantasy, feminism and magical prose
Published 21 Apr, 2019 07:10am
A sumptuously produced book of photographs is an ode to world civilisations and the known and anonymous ancient
Published 21 Apr, 2019 07:10am
Surmaee Arif Bukhari This collection of nearly 150 ghazals in Urdu, composed by an academic steeped
Published 14 Apr, 2019 07:08am
Thinking in binaries is the delight of a growing child. Isn’t the cat evil, through and through evil, with nothing...
Published 14 Apr, 2019 07:08am
One of the most significant publications related to Urdu’s literary culture forces us to reconsider previously held
Published 14 Apr, 2019 07:08am
An exploration of the problems of the bureaucracy in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is easy to read, but lacks academic rigour and
Published 14 Apr, 2019 07:08am
Though a first-timer, Haroon Khalid Akhtar displays the ability of a veteran to captivate readers as much with the
Published 14 Apr, 2019 07:08am
Mirza Azeem Baig Chughtai’s 1932 novel came to life in the United States 86 years later
Published 07 Apr, 2019 07:15am
Jamil Jan Kochai was born in Peshawar, Pakistan, in 1992, but his family hails from Logar, Afghanistan. Kochai ...
Published 07 Apr, 2019 07:15am
A coming-of-age story about a boy looking for a dog that bit his finger off in his ancestral Afghan village marks an
Published 07 Apr, 2019 07:15am
Two literary academics make the case for the power of storytelling from Muslim perspectives to disrupt Islamophobic
Published 31 Mar, 2019 06:59am
A book delineates the overwhelming culture of the subcontinent in stunning detail, but fails in probing deeper into the
Published 31 Mar, 2019 06:59am
An edgy debut novel fictionalises the life of Dr Abdus Salam to explore the politics of religion in Pakistan
Published 31 Mar, 2019 06:59am
When you think of a writer, do you imagine a person who is brilliant, eloquent and deeply philosophical? Someone who...
Published 31 Mar, 2019 06:59am
“Hoon garmi-i-nishat-i-tasavvur se naghma sanj/ Main andalib-i-gulshan-i-na afridah hoon” [I sing from the...
Published 24 Mar, 2019 07:11am
A wealth of information about 75 Muslims who impacted Western civilisation also provides correctives to dominant
Published 24 Mar, 2019 07:11am
A psychological thriller with strong female characters upends expectations from a relationship triangle involving a man
Published 24 Mar, 2019 07:11am
In her first collection, the author of the viral hit short story ‘Cat Person’ explores human yearning through ordinary
Published 24 Mar, 2019 07:11am
Altaf-i-Sahafat Dr Tahir Masood A tribute to veteran journalist, editor and publisher Altaf Hasan Qureshi, the book
Published 17 Mar, 2019 07:51am
A certain amount of decadence and rakishness is required to produce a worthwhile work of art or piece of literature....
Published 17 Mar, 2019 07:51am
Silence can also be eloquent and have its own lifecycles in poetry
Published 17 Mar, 2019 07:51am
Francis Fukuyama revisits his own grandiose thesis about liberal democracy being the end point of humankind’s political
Published 17 Mar, 2019 07:51am
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
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
A fan’s exploration of the life and career of the iconic cinema superstar
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 contemporary Pakistani adaptation of Pride and Prejudice works because of its attention to detail when it comes to
Published 17 Feb, 2019 07:38am
Shahrah-i-Khubaani Ke Musaafir Salman Rashid The travelogue author’s account — an Urdu translation of his book
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
A French anthropologist argues that rising global urban unrest is mainly because of a waning of public trust
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
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
Reality being a fiction that we apprehend in a combination of intertwined languages — which include scientific...
Updated 04 Feb, 2019 11:08am
History through eight classical Urdu poets whose hearts remained ensconced in ‘Dilli’ even when they were forced to
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
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
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
Eminent poet and feminist Fahmida Riaz was gentle and warm in demeanour and elegantly understated in appearance, but...
Published 27 Jan, 2019 07:01am
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
Mustansar Hussain Tarar’s latest novel embarks on an allegorical journey to deal with issues of religious interpretation
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
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
Reading the third book in a fantasy series first actually whets the appetite for the other parts
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
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
Solitude, deep introspection and an existentialist sense of each passing moment set the accomplished author’s work
Published 20 Jan, 2019 08:58am
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
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
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
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
M.A. Jinnah: The Outside View Muhammad Reza Kazimi The veteran historian, a retired professor of the University
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
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
