A feminist retelling of a popular children’s story turns it on its head
Published 30 Sep, 2018 06:28am
The Zee Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) came to Houston, Texas for the first time in September and it was an...
Published 30 Sep, 2018 06:28am
A promising start to a novel is gradually squandered through forays into politics, geography and ambition
Published 30 Sep, 2018 06:28am
Bob Woodward’s latest bestseller, already in its 10th reprint since its release on September 11, has broken a number of
Published 30 Sep, 2018 06:28am
In his 2005 introduction to ‘Jejuri’ — a celebrated poem by the leading English and Marathi language poet Arun...
Updated 24 Sep, 2018 03:57pm
The following extract has been taken from Saif Mahmood’s book Beloved Delhi: A Mughal City and Her Greatest Poets,...
Published 23 Sep, 2018 06:41am
Dr Shenila Khoja-Moolji is Assistant Professor of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies at Bowdoin College, US. ...
Published 23 Sep, 2018 06:41am
A book looks at the diverse strands of thought that fed into concepts of the educated Muslim girl in South Asia
Published 23 Sep, 2018 06:41am
The stinking water in a flower vase begins to swelter and bubble with fermentation as chemical processes unleash a...
Published 23 Sep, 2018 06:41am
While many in Pakistan may not know the eminent Urdu poet Shahryar, a slim volume may help correct that oversight
Published 23 Sep, 2018 06:41am
The grande dame of prose poetry has mellowed and her anger has been replaced with wistfulness about love
Published 23 Sep, 2018 06:41am
Nahin Naqshgar, Nahin Naqshgar Ka Kamaal Hum!
Makhdoom Tipu Salman
From a lawyer with books on law, history and...
Published 23 Sep, 2018 06:41am
Diary of a Vagabond
Mustansar Hussain Tarar
A collection of travel columns that have been previously published in...
Published 16 Sep, 2018 06:45am
It is problematic when great poets in any language are not only identified but categorised by their geographical...
Published 16 Sep, 2018 06:45am
This motivational business fable was a monster hit. Twenty years later, we’re still wondering why
Published 16 Sep, 2018 06:45am
An account of the men and women who built it from a haphazard group of amateurs into the sprawling behemoth it is today
Published 16 Sep, 2018 06:45am
A journalist explores everyday life in the four quarters of Old Jerusalem
Published 16 Sep, 2018 06:45am
Many readers may have heard of a French novel called La Disparition by Georges Perec, written without using the...
Updated 16 Sep, 2018 10:37am
An anthology of short stories revolving around women offers a compelling, poignant and inspirational read
Published 16 Sep, 2018 06:45am
Syeda Muhammadi Begum died at just 30 years of age, but managed to author more than 30 books for women and children
Published 16 Sep, 2018 06:45am
Writing for television can be challenging and lucrative, but there are limits to how deep one can venture into the...
Published 09 Sep, 2018 06:55am
A polemical new book looks at the rise of the popularly elected dictator around the world
Published 09 Sep, 2018 06:55am
A voracious exploration of femininity, suburban malaise, societal pressures and politics
Published 09 Sep, 2018 06:55am
Making villages active in governance processes is crucial for national progress, argues a development practitioner
Published 09 Sep, 2018 06:55am
A poem of Faiz Ahmed Faiz that begins with the line
[And so we shall witness] has become over the years perhaps ...
Published 09 Sep, 2018 06:55am
Anam Zakaria is a researcher, development professional, educationist, and winner of the KLF-German Peace Prize 2017...
Published 09 Sep, 2018 06:55am
A new book uses oral histories to explore the larger Kashmir conflict through the lens of Azad Kashmiris
Updated 10 Sep, 2018 12:24pm
I would truly feel small if asked to comment on a work of art as brilliant, celebrated and so thoroughly analysed ...
Published 02 Sep, 2018 06:58am
Professor Shamim Hanafi is a leading Indian Urdu literary critic, poet and playwright. He has penned several books,...
Published 02 Sep, 2018 06:58am
Driving the plot are dead relatives, strange wills and ominous birds
Published 02 Sep, 2018 06:58am
A Young Adult novel that is much more than the usual and tackles issues of religion, culture, mental health and abuse
Published 02 Sep, 2018 06:58am
One of the year’s biggest #MeToo scandals came in the literary world earlier this year when Pulitzer Prize-winning...
Published 02 Sep, 2018 06:58am
Challenging dominant historiographies of the indigenous feminist movement
Updated 05 Sep, 2018 03:36pm
An anthology of translated Urdu short stories by brilliant wordsmiths that is a joy to read
Published 02 Sep, 2018 06:58am
The dreamiest job in the world Bookseller Philip Blackwell, scion of the family that owned — from 1879 until 2006 — the
Published 26 Aug, 2018 07:40am
Global Wrongs! Zulfiqar Ali Lessani In looking at a world hurtling into an uncertain future and yearning for a past that
Published 26 Aug, 2018 07:40am
It seems that what the state traditionally thought was its responsibility — particularly during the Zia years —...
Published 26 Aug, 2018 07:40am
Mirza Azeem Baig Chughtai’s granddaughter argues that her grandfather was much more than a stellar humourist
Published 26 Aug, 2018 07:40am
A new book about Bollywood is a treasure trove of facts, anecdotes and trivia that movie buffs love to read about
Published 26 Aug, 2018 07:40am
An Indian author insightfully examines the personality traits and leadership styles of the individuals who have held
Published 26 Aug, 2018 07:40am
In 2005, the art connoisseur Philippe Costamagna and a colleague were in a museum in Nice, on the French Riviera,...
Published 26 Aug, 2018 07:40am
In her new novel, the author builds an engrossing world particularly for young adults, ingeniously incorporating
Published 26 Aug, 2018 07:40am
Cultural critic Nadeem Farooq Paracha’s third book attempts to provide easy access to a diverse Pakistan with
Published 26 Aug, 2018 07:40am
Pehla Rang Milawat Wala Asif Memmood A collection of 34 poems on an eclectic mix of subjects, ranging from
Published 19 Aug, 2018 07:21am
V.S. Naipaul and Samir Amin — one a celebrated man of letters and the other an outstanding political economist —...
Published 19 Aug, 2018 07:21am
Fiction’s most significant form appears when it creates grey areas and challenges black-and-white certainties
Published 19 Aug, 2018 07:21am
Humorous vignettes about a tyrannical and uninformed mother’s impact on a family
Published 19 Aug, 2018 07:21am
A selection of articles on Sindh printed in the last days of British colonial rule provide a useful tool for students,
Published 19 Aug, 2018 07:21am
Smell, which I explored in my previous column, is hard to extricate from the next sense under discussion: taste. ...
Published 19 Aug, 2018 07:21am
Nadia Akbar’s debut novel is a startling look at contemporary upper-class Lahore society. Here, the author — who...
Published 19 Aug, 2018 07:21am
Nadia Akbar’s debut novel is an explosively racy one, with witty and unapologetic observations about desi culture and
Published 19 Aug, 2018 07:21am
Letters to the Editor Dr Pir Mohammed V. Shallwani A compendium of missives written by one prolific letter-writer to
Published 12 Aug, 2018 07:47am
Universally, there is a love-hate relationship between literary criticism and creative writing. On the one hand,...
Published 12 Aug, 2018 07:47am
Gulzar’s first novel is set in his beloved Punjab and traces familiar themes of grief, senseless violence and
Published 12 Aug, 2018 07:47am
Retelling a Greek classic from the viewpoint of a peripheral character is an exploration of femininity, feminism,
Published 12 Aug, 2018 07:47am
A series of interviews provides evidence for the growing communalisation of India and its effect on children
Published 12 Aug, 2018 07:47am
Living and teaching in the United States for the last 20 years in departments of languages and cultures, I have...
Published 12 Aug, 2018 07:47am
With Independence Day right around the corner, we asked some Pakistani fiction authors to tell us which Partition-themed
Published 12 Aug, 2018 07:47am
The following is an extract from Indian journalist Karan Thapar’s book Devil’s Advocate: The Untold Story,...
Updated 05 Aug, 2018 01:44pm
Prince of Physicians: The Life and Times of Ibn Sina (Avicenna)
Prof. Dr M. Habib, Prof. Dr Syed Irfan Ahmed
A...
Published 05 Aug, 2018 07:28am
What we see in Pakistan today has been the case for long. The biggest irony that marks South Asian Muslim upper and...
Published 05 Aug, 2018 07:28am
A new book attempts to add complexity and layers to Pakistan’s uni-dimensional image as a ‘dangerous’ country
Published 05 Aug, 2018 07:28am
A collection of Pakistani short stories in English is marked by its pitch-perfect writing and the empathy it brings
Published 05 Aug, 2018 07:28am
A debut novel from India-held Kashmir weaves beautiful landscapes and ugliness of violence into a painfully beautiful
Published 05 Aug, 2018 07:28am
When Shahbano Alvi, my friend and the publisher of my forthcoming book, asked me to give the first of a series of...
Published 05 Aug, 2018 07:28am
In this election fever I am once again reminded of Saadat Hasan Manto’s short story ‘Naya Qanoon’ [The New...
Published 29 Jul, 2018 07:31am
It seems the star of the children’s book about protecting the environment came not from imagination, but from Kenya
Published 29 Jul, 2018 07:31am
Sophia Naz writes in both English and Urdu. Her work has been featured in several literary journals. Her recently...
Published 29 Jul, 2018 07:31am
One of the first full-length English novels written by an Indian Muslim gives a fly-on-the-wall insight into the zenana
Published 29 Jul, 2018 07:31am
Maude Julien’s engaging and equally disturbing memoir is an attempt to come to terms with her traumatic past
Published 29 Jul, 2018 07:31am
The situation in America resembles Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia or the Chinese Cultural Revolution. It’s a...
Published 29 Jul, 2018 07:31am
A major literary voice from Bangladesh maturely handles the theme of missing persons against a political backdrop which
Published 29 Jul, 2018 07:31am
Journalist Yasha Levine’s book suggests that surveillance and thought control are not exceptional — they are part of the
Published 29 Jul, 2018 07:31am
Writer and publisher Shandana Minhas has just come out with her latest novel Rafina, published 14 years after it was...
Published 22 Jul, 2018 07:59am
Published 14 years after it was written and four years after its film adaptation, a Pakistani novella about an ambitious
Published 22 Jul, 2018 07:59am
EASY OR BRACING?
Which do you prefer: books that go down easy — like a long, cool drink — offering relief from...
Published 22 Jul, 2018 07:59am
In their book How to Rig an Election, Nic Cheeseman and Brian Klaas issue a plea to American and European leaders:...
Published 22 Jul, 2018 07:59am
Martin Puchner’s painstakingly researched book examines the role of literature in shaping the world around us
Published 22 Jul, 2018 07:59am
Racial tensions and citywide riots make a tinderbox of a London council estate in this searing debut novel
Published 22 Jul, 2018 07:59am
Based on interviews over two years, a new biographical book traces the beats of tabla maestro Zakir Hussain’s life
Published 22 Jul, 2018 07:59am
Summertime and the tourists are abroad, I among them, seeing the world through a veil of ignorance cast over it like...
Published 22 Jul, 2018 07:59am
THE PAST, THE PRESENT
Lately we’ve been thinking about the enduring power of ancient myths — how it truly could...
Published 15 Jul, 2018 06:25am
Khoobsoorat Nazar Aaee Farooq Adil As a journalist and newspaper editor, the author possesses a strong awareness of
Published 15 Jul, 2018 06:25am
The former American president and his right-hand man are the stars of a goofy crime caper
Published 15 Jul, 2018 06:25am
In religious societies such as ours, a constant tension is observed between the afterlife and the here and now....
Published 15 Jul, 2018 06:25am
Sarmad Sehbai is renowned for his telefilm Fankaar Gali and stage play The Dark Room, but has also published four...
Published 15 Jul, 2018 06:25am
A tribute to an exceptional doyenne of Eastern classical music
Published 15 Jul, 2018 06:25am
Exploring the loss of Karachi’s final frontiers to urban development
Updated 19 Jul, 2018 10:50am
Having lived to a ripe old age, Mushtaq Ahmed Yousufi departed from this mortal world a few weeks ago. His death has...
Published 15 Jul, 2018 06:25am
The 10 short tales in Asghar Nadeem Syed’s collection reek of resistance literature which has its own meaning in today’s
Published 15 Jul, 2018 06:25am
In an increasingly globalised and interconnected world, the ability to understand other people speaking different...
Published 15 Jul, 2018 06:25am
The French poet, essayist and thinker Paul Valery (1871-1945) captured his readers’ imagination like few would....
Published 08 Jul, 2018 07:16am
The former FBI director reserves his choicest hits for the US president — but they only come after one ploughs through
Published 08 Jul, 2018 07:16am
A debut novel written pseudonymously, is a highly entertaining psychological page-turner
Published 08 Jul, 2018 07:16am
Short stories that offer brilliant commentaries on the individual and communal psychology of our people, always
Published 08 Jul, 2018 07:16am
Do you do calf stretches while you are brushing your teeth? Listen to a podcast if you take a 10-minute walk? Scroll...
Published 08 Jul, 2018 07:16am
A political scientist theorises why some secessionist movements lead to brutal state repression and others not
Published 08 Jul, 2018 07:16am
Reading Steven Pinker’s new tome is best done with a handful of salt
Published 08 Jul, 2018 07:16am
I am in Lahore when Professor Yousuf Hassan is being laid to rest in Rawalpindi. I cannot make it to his funeral, ...
Published 01 Jul, 2018 07:07am
