The rise and fall of Rajesh Khanna as told by Yasser Usman
Published 03 Jan, 2016 07:35am
THE one Urdu book that stood out above all others I have read this past year is undoubtedly Intizar Husain's...
Updated 29 Dec, 2015 08:03pm
IT was a middling year for fans of chick lit. On the one hand, there were a couple of great reads from unexpected...
Updated 30 Dec, 2015 12:56am
THESE days I don't get enough time to read much fiction as I would like to. The writing of my latest novel set ...
Updated 30 Dec, 2015 12:18am
ONE of the disadvantages of being an avid reader is that at the end of every year as you sit down to evaluate the...
Updated 29 Dec, 2015 08:15pm
MOST years witness a healthy number of publications of spy fiction, and 2015 was no different. Jeffrey Archer ...
Updated 30 Dec, 2015 12:49am
DUE chiefly to the fact that I have travelled quite a lot this year - and when I travel I read more - this has been ...
Updated 30 Dec, 2015 12:14am
THE book that I have been slow-reading through the year is Dada Amir Haider Khan's memoir, Chains to Lose....
Updated 29 Dec, 2015 07:59pm
I HAVE read a few works of fiction during the course of 2015, among others Adelbert von Chamisso's Peter...
Updated 29 Dec, 2015 07:56pm
Banned book wins 'Arabic Booker'A week after it was banned across the United Arab Emirates, the Tunisian...
Published 27 Dec, 2015 07:09am
DURING 2015, a large number of novels were based around the sad picture of terrorism and the APS Peshawar school...
Updated 30 Dec, 2015 12:21am
COMPARED to recent years books published this year related to the regional politics of Pakistan were scant. Perhaps...
Updated 30 Dec, 2015 12:45am
PABLO Neruda's protégé, the Chilean poet Nicanor Parra, once told the younger poets of his region not to write...
Updated 29 Dec, 2015 08:24pm
I'D venture that 2015 hasn't been the best year for Pakistani fiction in English but then again, what's...
Updated 30 Dec, 2015 12:26am
THE literary world's hot topic for a few years already has been 'diversity', and it's more relevant...
Updated 30 Dec, 2015 12:32am
Letters, words and sentences all strung together in infinite possibilities ... an alphabet soup or a scrabble of...
Published 27 Dec, 2015 07:09am
THEY say that those who read do not write as much and those who write do not read as much. Since I write every day,...
Updated 29 Dec, 2015 08:09pm
THREE books stood out for me this year, though none are from this year. First, The Hearing Trumpet, by the ...
Updated 29 Dec, 2015 08:17pm
SINCE I am a writer myself, many other writers feel that I must read their creations and I have received scores of...
Updated 29 Dec, 2015 08:19pm
THOUGH 2015 will not go down in the history of Urdu fiction as a vintage year, it was, at least, not totally...
Updated 30 Dec, 2015 12:38am
I DIDN'T read as much as I wanted to this year because I was working on a novel; I try not to read much fiction...
Updated 29 Dec, 2015 08:11pm
A brilliantly imagined attempted assassination of reggae legend Bob Marley and a turbulent Jamaica of the ’70s and ’80s
Published 20 Dec, 2015 07:22am
Meghan Daum’s collection of essays are honest, witty and worth a read
Published 20 Dec, 2015 07:22am
Women writers challenge and break down the region’s colonial tropes of isolation and violence in their work
Published 20 Dec, 2015 07:22am
Mario Vargas Llosa’s latest novel is an engaging thriller revolving around a defiant protagonist
Published 20 Dec, 2015 07:22am
Padma Viswanathan intimately explores the impact of the Air India bombing on the Indian Canadian community
Published 20 Dec, 2015 07:22am
The IUC had its low points, but has gradually brought forth fresh names who may well be the leading lights of tomorrow
Published 20 Dec, 2015 07:22am
R.K. Narayan’s work has been reduced to essentialist readings but can also be looked at through a postcolonial prism
Published 20 Dec, 2015 07:22am
Sophie Kinsella’s latest novel is humorous but not as entertaining as her previous works
Published 20 Dec, 2015 07:22am
Stillness
By Feroze Varun GandhiThis second anthology of poems by noted politician Feroze Varun Gandhi is intriguing...
Updated 14 Dec, 2015 01:49pm
On the anthology of Musadiq Sanwal’s poetry published posthumously
Published 13 Dec, 2015 07:10am
A collection of essays that details the history of Pakistan has missing links in the narrative
Published 13 Dec, 2015 07:10am
The Forgers takes readers into the world of rare books through a murder-mystery plot
Published 13 Dec, 2015 07:10am
Ravish Nadeem’s latest collection of poems is innovative and encapsulates modern-day life
Published 13 Dec, 2015 07:10am
Christina Lamb looks at the US-led, 13-year war in Afghanistan & its impact on the region in a narrative lacking depth
Published 13 Dec, 2015 07:10am
On the underlying themes in the dastan tradition of the subcontinent
Updated 14 Dec, 2015 01:44pm
Renowned journalist Masha Gessen explores what led the Tsarnaev brothers to become the Boston Marathon bombers
Published 13 Dec, 2015 07:10am
A publication throws light on the correspondence between the writers Zulfikar Ghose and B.S. Johnson
Updated 07 Dec, 2015 01:59pm
On the music of Urdu poetry
Published 06 Dec, 2015 06:33am
Part II of Dr Sadaf Fatima’s research on travelogues by female writers in Urdu is lacking in some respects
Published 06 Dec, 2015 06:33am
On the life, death, and achievements of Yukio Mishima
Updated 14 Dec, 2015 01:53pm
Way Down Dark, the first in J.P. Smythe’s Australia trilogy, is a fast-paced narrative
Published 06 Dec, 2015 06:33am
Ian Caldwell’s bestseller explores the controversy surrounding the Fifth Gospel and the Shroud of Turin
Published 06 Dec, 2015 06:33am
The beauty within Mir Taqi Mir’s ghazals and nazms
Updated 30 Nov, 2015 04:46pm
Whispering Hope is a heart-rending account of five women formerly trapped in Ireland’s Magdalene laundries
Published 29 Nov, 2015 06:56am
Jostein Gaarder’s latest novel brilliantly explores environmental issues
Published 29 Nov, 2015 06:56am
Christophe Jaffrelot’s new book provides a different perspective from the usual narratives on Pakistan
Published 29 Nov, 2015 06:56am
On Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan quartet and the last book of the series
Published 29 Nov, 2015 06:56am
Victoria’s Aveyard debut is a fast-paced but disturbing read
Published 29 Nov, 2015 06:56am
A Robot in the Garden has a clichéd plot but its central character, Tang, makes the novel entertaining enough
Published 22 Nov, 2015 07:20am
Raghu Karnad writes about the role of Indians during the Second World War through his own family’s story
Published 22 Nov, 2015 07:20am
Comedian Greg Proops’s book is as entertaining as his podcasts
Published 22 Nov, 2015 07:20am
Carnegie Medal-winner Patrick Ness’s coming-of-age novel is about the everyday issues that young people deal with
Published 22 Nov, 2015 07:20am
Necropolis is a noire-crime novel meets supernatural thriller set in the Indian capital
Published 22 Nov, 2015 07:20am
Dilip Hiro’s The Longest August is a comprehensive but unilluminating account of Indo-Pak relations
Published 22 Nov, 2015 07:20am
Exploring the Other in literature and philosophy
Published 22 Nov, 2015 07:20am
A treatise on Sayyid Ahmad Barailvi paints him in realistic colours
Published 15 Nov, 2015 06:59am
An anthology on the education system in South Asia gives interesting perspectives on the educational crisis
Published 15 Nov, 2015 06:59am
Translated works of foreign-language authors open up a whole new world of literature for writers and readers alike
Published 15 Nov, 2015 06:59am
Elizabeth Gilbert guides creative people on how to overcome their mental blocks
Published 15 Nov, 2015 06:59am
Politician and army officer Majeed Malik’s autobiography gives insight into events that are part of our history
Published 15 Nov, 2015 06:59am
A heartbreaking novel about illegal immigrants and their struggles
Published 15 Nov, 2015 06:59am
Jeffrey Archer’s latest thriller will be appreciated by his fans
Published 15 Nov, 2015 06:59am
S.Y. Quraishi, the former chief election commissioner of India on his country’s electoral processes
Published 08 Nov, 2015 06:56am
If the Oceans were Ink presents the liberal face of Islamic scholarship
Published 08 Nov, 2015 06:56am
Rosemary Raza’s treatise captures the illustrated history of Sindh when the province was under British rule
Published 08 Nov, 2015 06:56am
Edwards studies early Islamic architecture of the Indus Valley and the myths that are inseparable from the monuments
Published 08 Nov, 2015 06:56am
The author looks back on how he juggled two careers and became a writer of fiction
Published 08 Nov, 2015 06:56am
A Mirrored Life is a historical novel that brilliantly imagines what the Sufi mystic’s life was like
Published 01 Nov, 2015 07:07am
Renowned scholar Tariq Rahman looks at how identities, colonisation and Islamisation have influenced naming trends
Published 01 Nov, 2015 07:07am
Towards an analysis and social history of the dastan in the subcontinent
Published 01 Nov, 2015 07:07am
In his detailed tome, the renowned historian analyses the dynamics that shaped the 19th century
Published 01 Nov, 2015 07:07am
Chetan Bhaghat’s novel Half Girlfriend is an entertaining read
Published 01 Nov, 2015 07:07am
“I knew I was onto something, there was the pulse of life in writing the book, I could feel it.”
Published 01 Nov, 2015 07:07am
Sethi chronicles her battle with anorexia-bulimia, drug addiction and alcoholism in her memoir
Published 01 Nov, 2015 07:07am
An artist rediscovers life and who she is in Anna Quindlen’s Still Life with Bread Crumbs
Published 01 Nov, 2015 07:07am
On the accomplished writer and editor, Tirath Ferozepuri, who published and translated works from more than 155 books
Updated 26 Oct, 2015 01:43pm
One of this summer’s bestsellers, The Girl on the Train lives up to its hype
Published 26 Oct, 2015 06:43am
Revisiting Dune, one of the most popular science fiction book to be written, on the 50th anniversary of its publication
Updated 28 Oct, 2015 03:14pm
A collection of articles from the magazine Chaman chronicles the lives of women in the early 1900s
Published 26 Oct, 2015 06:43am
The accomplished writer’s third collection of short stories is a riveting read
Published 26 Oct, 2015 06:43am
Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri’s book provides insight into a difficult time in Pakistan’s foreign policy manoeuvres.
Updated 26 Oct, 2015 12:27pm
On the medical practices introduced by the British in colonial India
Updated 21 Oct, 2015 01:20pm
M.G. Vassanji explores the histories and identities of the countries in which he has spent his life
Published 18 Oct, 2015 06:45am
Looking at the equivalence of poetry and the visual arts
Published 18 Oct, 2015 06:45am
The award-winning book is a powerful commentary on the broken American dream
Published 18 Oct, 2015 06:45am
A homage to Rajinder Singh Bedi on his birth centenary
Published 18 Oct, 2015 06:45am
Inspired by an event in her life, Judy Blume explores the effect of plane crashes on the residents of a small town
Published 18 Oct, 2015 06:45am
Daniel Silva’s latest thriller is a great read despite its improbable scenarios
Updated 28 Oct, 2015 02:58pm
David Duchovny’s novel is an absurd but amusing animal adventure with a cow as its protagonist
Published 18 Oct, 2015 06:45am
Jessica Stern and J.M. Berger’s book provides an in-depth analysis of the emergence of the self-styled Islamic State
Published 11 Oct, 2015 06:48am
Tracing the roots of the gul-o bulbul theme in poetry
Updated 12 Oct, 2015 11:45am
A collection of 16 thought-provoking essays that reflect on parenting and child-rearing
Published 11 Oct, 2015 06:48am
Where Worlds Collide gives a fresh representation of the current generation of Pakistani writers
Published 11 Oct, 2015 06:48am
Tania James tells a tale with three interconnected narratives and an important issue at its heart
Published 11 Oct, 2015 06:48am
Governments need to rethink their approach if a rise in sea level and other natural calamities are to be avoided
Published 11 Oct, 2015 06:48am
Ahfazur Rahman’s book gives deep insight into journalists’ struggle for a free press during the Ziaul Haq regime
Published 11 Oct, 2015 06:48am
Inspired by true events in anthropologist Margaret Mead’s life, Euphoria explores the dynamics of relationships
Published 04 Oct, 2015 06:37am
On Kishwar Naheed’s latest offering is a volume of prose
Published 04 Oct, 2015 06:37am
