What first provoked my curious attention when I opened João Almino’s novel, Enigmas of Spring, was that its hero...
Published 25 Apr, 2021 06:20am
A debut collection of short stories enriches Pakistan’s corpus of short stories in English with a fresh and formidable new...
Published 25 Apr, 2021 06:20am
A pioneering book discusses concepts of economics and development in everyday Urdu language, and how to change policies...
Published 25 Apr, 2021 06:20am
Afzal Ahmed Syed’s Urdu translation of Musharraf Ali Farooqi’s Between Clay and Dust shows how to render a Pakistani...
Published 25 Apr, 2021 06:20am
Over the years it has diminished, but until some time ago, there was still a vibrant left-wing political movement in...
Published 18 Apr, 2021 06:56am
Is there a readership for Pakistani sci-fi and fantasy fiction? And if so, why are more publishers not publishing it?...
Published 18 Apr, 2021 06:56am
Former US National Security Adviser John Bolton’s voluminous memoir serves as a sad reminder of a mindset that has permeated...
Published 18 Apr, 2021 06:56am
Haunting, troubling, yet extremely thought-provoking, this collection of macabre short stories is a rich, intense and...
Updated 27 Apr, 2021 04:09pm
In the issue of April 4, 2020, in the essay ‘Saving the Ghazal’ by Shariq Khan on the works of Shamsur Rahman...
Published 11 Apr, 2021 07:08am
The cement basin around the fountain was small, and she liked to play inside it on hot summer days. But the neighbours, who...
Published 11 Apr, 2021 07:08am
A taut and fast-paced debut novel shines a bright light on the marginalisation of the minority and poor communities of Pakistan...
Published 11 Apr, 2021 07:08am
A poet and essayist presents evocative vignettes and verses that serve as an exploration of multiple identities and a paean to...
Published 11 Apr, 2021 07:08am
A beautiful book features artwork on Mohammad Ali Jinnah from 29 visual artists, and engaging critical commentary that...
Published 11 Apr, 2021 07:08am
The 12th Karachi Literature Festival was a digital event with audiences forced to take part only from their homes. But it still
Published 04 Apr, 2021 06:57am
The Zeenat Haroon Rashid (ZHR) Writing Prize for Women, now in its third year, is accepting submissions for the 2021...
Published 04 Apr, 2021 06:45am
Often, when I’m bored with the books I’ve been reading or with the enforced solitude of lockdown, I return to my...
Published 04 Apr, 2021 06:45am
Shamsur Rahman Faruqi recovered the poetic Urdu genre from colonial dismissal, and for that we are ever grateful
Updated 04 Apr, 2021 04:36pm
Nuanced discussions about the changing landscapes of global politics and domestic social dynamics marked many of the sessions at
Published 04 Apr, 2021 06:45am
In her collection of poetry, reflections and prose, the writer — an advocate for women’s empowerment, children’s rights and peace
Published 28 Mar, 2021 06:28am
The world has been struggling under travel bans, lockdowns and limits on freedom for the last year because of the...
Published 28 Mar, 2021 06:28am
A work of creative non-fiction presents a gritty and frank portrayal of criminal life in the suburbs, written by a talented writer
Published 28 Mar, 2021 06:28am
Victoria Schofield’s latest book is less a critically analysed biography of Benazir Bhutto, and more a celebration of a long
Published 28 Mar, 2021 06:28am
In Karachi, the Sindh Culture Department and the Arts Council of Pakistan recently organised a national conference ...
Published 21 Mar, 2021 07:08am
A debut novel is full of sparkling prose and fast-paced action, but also carries a measure of predictability...
Published 21 Mar, 2021 07:08am
An American sociologist examines indigenous Pakistani resistance to violent extremism through the arts, religious teachin...
Published 21 Mar, 2021 07:08am
The publishing of an Iftikhar Arif collection of poems often becomes a momentous literary occasion. His latest is no less...
Published 21 Mar, 2021 07:08am
‘Composing a good sher [verse] in the short metre merits a certificate of perfection (kamaal ki daleel) in the...
Published 14 Mar, 2021 06:57am
A Kashmir-born British writer’s latest book, like his past four, is a lyrical, multi-layered exploration of his dual inheritance
Published 14 Mar, 2021 06:57am
Eos speaks to the author of The Khan about a desi crime syndicate in modern-day Britain
Published 14 Mar, 2021 06:57am
A gripping debut novel seems like The Godfather set in Bradford, but is more than just a crime thriller. It is also a searing
Published 14 Mar, 2021 06:57am
A monograph on the writers and readers of popular digest fiction presents a first scholarly study of a woefully under-explored...
Published 07 Mar, 2021 06:55am
It is nearly 20 years since Agha Shahid Ali, the eminent Kashmiri poet, died aged 52. Rereading his books —...
Published 07 Mar, 2021 06:55am
Siyaasat, Cinema, Shakhsiyaat: Pakistan Ki Ibtidaee Siyaasat, Soviet Union Ka Inhedaam, Filmon Par Tabsaray Aur ...
Published 07 Mar, 2021 06:55am
A scholarly Western study of God and His attributes, as delineated in the Quran and Hadith, is a surprisingly accessible read...
Published 07 Mar, 2021 06:55am
A Pakistani sci-fi novel imagines an inter-galactic war between good and evil being played out on the streets of Pakistan...
Published 07 Mar, 2021 06:55am
Seventy five years after the liberation of Auschwitz, English readers get an extraordinary account of life in a concentration...
Published 28 Feb, 2021 07:36am
On his way to the seafront, he found a bookshop. Instinctively, he entered and picked up a book by Jean Paul Sartre. “He though...
Published 28 Feb, 2021 07:36am
The LLF, as always, had a diverse and eclectic array of topics under discussion this year...
Published 28 Feb, 2021 07:36am
The Lahore Literary Festival went entirely online in line with the ongoing pandemic’s restrictions. It also often reflected...
Published 28 Feb, 2021 07:36am
Barack Obama reflects on his and America’s journey during his presidential tenure, in the first part of a two-volume memoir...
Updated 22 Feb, 2021 09:01am
Seeking a metaphor to describe Ghalib, we must recognise that he himself is its superb craftsman...
Updated 21 Feb, 2021 12:51pm
Elif Shafak’s long essay in the shape of a booklet, ponders the big issues of the times, which trouble people around the world...
Published 21 Feb, 2021 07:03am
An important Australian novel, set in the gruesome world of Sydney in the 1700s, attempts to come to terms with the monstros...
Published 21 Feb, 2021 07:03am
Somewhere towards the end of the first decade of this century, I came upon a review, in the pages of Dawn, of a book...
Published 14 Feb, 2021 06:47am
A compelling and lucid memoir of a Pakistani British man’s coming to terms with his sexuality could be a game-changer...
Published 14 Feb, 2021 06:47am
A limited-edition, handsome monograph on Pakistani artist Ayessha Quraishi serves as a semi-scholarly documentation that...
Published 14 Feb, 2021 06:47am
A celebrated writer’s sophomore novel may be much more modest in scope than her debut, but is equally ambitious in its premi...
Published 14 Feb, 2021 06:47am
Ebola is a viral infection which causes haemorrhagic fever. Though rare, it has been devastating in west, central ...
Updated 07 Feb, 2021 05:43pm
A well-researched treatise argues for the need to take the threat of scientific racism seriously...
Published 07 Feb, 2021 07:49am
A new book by a veteran scholar connects political economist Karl Marx’s thoughts from his early years to his later writings...
Updated 07 Feb, 2021 05:44pm
A debut novel set in Lahore and New York and focused on the plight of the marginalised in Pakistan shows future promise even...
Published 07 Feb, 2021 07:49am
Our writers find it easier to convey thoughts and ideas in their prose, but struggle when the feelings and emotions are to be...
Published 31 Jan, 2021 07:06am
A critical, informative and argumentative collection of essays on the changing face of media in Pakistan...
Published 31 Jan, 2021 07:06am
A sequel book by a music aficionado provides insight into the life and work of 35 more film playback singers from the Subcont...
Published 31 Jan, 2021 07:06am
Nasir Abbas Nayyar’s fourth collection of short stories showcases the writer’s scholarliness, creativity and fertile mind...
Published 31 Jan, 2021 07:06am
From 1987’s The Art of the Deal to 2015’s Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again, erstwhile American...
Published 24 Jan, 2021 06:45am
A Western scholar remembers his association with the late Shamsur Rahman Faruqi...
Published 24 Jan, 2021 06:44am
I was maybe nine when introduced to Ghalib. Father presented me some verses that I noted in my squiggly handwriting....
Published 24 Jan, 2021 06:44am
Gen Yahya Khan was at the helm of state and the army when Pakistan was torn asunder in 1971...
Published 24 Jan, 2021 06:44am
Those of us who grew up during the last years of the British Raj had little choice if we wanted a decent education...
Published 17 Jan, 2021 06:55am
With books on criticism, compilations, translations and even stories, Taj Joyo is a cultural icon more should know about...
Published 17 Jan, 2021 06:55am
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ayad Akhtar’s latest novel is an elegy for America. But it is also an elegy for Muslim...
Published 17 Jan, 2021 06:55am
Naseer Turabi, who passed away on January 10, had only two slim volumes of poetry to his name, but his...
Published 17 Jan, 2021 06:55am
A research-laden book details how various women’s movements tackled organisational structures of supremacy and control in the
Published 10 Jan, 2021 11:17am
A Pakistani science fiction novella set in a dystopian post-pandemic world asks important questions
Published 10 Jan, 2021 11:12am
A personal memoir is also a socio-cultural history into the past and present of Sri Lanka
Published 10 Jan, 2021 11:07am
Inam Nadeem is among those who embrace different forms of art with equal vivacity. His extraordinary comprehension ...
Published 10 Jan, 2021 11:03am
In attempting to capture the significant rules of nature as applicable to humans, the author surmises that those civilisations
Published 10 Jan, 2021 10:59am
As far as I am concerned, I know Western literature, but I do not feel belittled by it.”...
Updated 03 Jan, 2021 03:50pm
Despite documenting a personal perspective on tragic events, a book manages to be not only informative and enlightening, but...
Published 03 Jan, 2021 07:31am
Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, who passed away on December 25, was a true giant of Urdu literature — a critic, a poet, a novelist,...
Published 03 Jan, 2021 07:31am
A collection of travelogues that rises above the genre because of the author’s immense knowledge of what he writes about...
Published 27 Dec, 2020 07:04am
In his preface to the third edition of Sharif Beti [The Gentle Daughter], published in 1918, its publisher Syed...
Published 27 Dec, 2020 07:04am
A book of essays by a sociologist and various other scholars, clinicians and specialists addresses the knowledge gap in...
Published 27 Dec, 2020 07:04am
A pared-down disaster novella from master storyteller Don DeLillo, about a technology blackout and its effects on the social...
Published 27 Dec, 2020 07:04am
What is the equivalent of public poetry — verse written at white heat after a momentous event — in literary...
Published 20 Dec, 2020 06:59am
A book fills a key gap in the available literature on public interest journalism’s attempt to impact national politics...
Published 20 Dec, 2020 06:59am
A debut collection of stories and poems attempts to plumb the emotional depths of soldiers who subsume their own lives to the...
Published 20 Dec, 2020 06:59am
Owen Bennett-Jones’s remarkable latest book is not simply about one dynasty. It is a history of Pakistan from its birth until...
Published 20 Dec, 2020 06:59am
Despite shifting online and the lack of physical crowds at the 13th International Urdu Conference, the spirit of scholarship with
Published 13 Dec, 2020 08:23am
A Palestinian author’s new novel about the Israeli occupation burns with the white heat of taking a stand against the erasure of
Published 13 Dec, 2020 08:19am
An anthropologist’s cri de coeur: to save ancient artwork before it’s destroyed by greedy developers and mindless collectors and
Published 13 Dec, 2020 08:13am
In a country where philosophy is not even taught in most public and private colleges and universities, and where...
Published 13 Dec, 2020 08:06am
A Booker-shortlist alumnus pens a fun, engaging novel about a fictional band that you can enjoy like a pop song — easy on the ear
Published 06 Dec, 2020 08:26am
Three feminists attempt to define an inclusive new manifesto that attempts to address the failures of earlier iterations of
Published 06 Dec, 2020 08:22am
A book traces the history of Pakistan’s leftist labour movement through the life and politics of activist Karamat Ali
Published 06 Dec, 2020 08:17am
Nuclear weapons have long enriched the discourse on international politics. The doyens of nuclear strategy have...
Published 06 Dec, 2020 08:14am
A former IG Police analyses the reasons for ill-governance in the country and how to put the state back on the road to...
Updated 29 Nov, 2020 03:44pm
He shows Raphael a strangely brilliant piece of shagreen; anyone who possesses the skin and makes a wish will have his wish...
Updated 29 Nov, 2020 04:22pm
A book on the thorny issue of Balochistan’s underdevelopment by a Baloch former bureaucrat, writer and politician, despite his...
Published 29 Nov, 2020 06:55am
A debut novelist digs into the glossy lives of the competitive Pakistani upper crust and reveals how they unravel.
Updated 30 Nov, 2020 12:35pm
Traditionally a rarity that only the elite enjoyed, shark fin soup suddenly fell within the reach of the general...
Published 22 Nov, 2020 07:21am
Now in its second year, the Zeenat Haroon Rashid (ZHR) Writing Prize for Women has announced 21-year-old ...
Published 22 Nov, 2020 07:21am
An important book takes on the issues of class, race and gender that mainstream white feminism has often ignored...
Published 22 Nov, 2020 07:21am
A posthumous publication by a towering scholar on Pakistan and Islam brings together 10 of her finest essays in one volume...
Published 22 Nov, 2020 07:21am
After his earlier book, which showcased Karachi, the author turns his attention to Lahore and again...
Published 15 Nov, 2020 07:37am
The one whose spring would be this, then its autumn — do not ask!
Updated 15 Nov, 2020 12:57pm
A Pakistani collection of tales of the supernatural does what it sets out to do: scare and entertain...
Published 15 Nov, 2020 07:37am
Researcher Aqeel Abbas Jafri has penned an authoritative and invaluable account of the origins, history and technicalities of...
Published 15 Nov, 2020 07:37am
