A new collection of Urdu short stories by Julien Columeau often reads as character sketches of characters plucked from real life
Published 21 Aug, 2022 01:41pm
The verses of Allama Iqbal’s grandson achieve his objectives of interpreting, teaching, preaching and praising Iqbal via poems...
Published 21 Aug, 2022 01:37pm
Monica Ali’s fifth novel may not stay with readers for years to come, but it will definitely make them stop and think
Updated 22 Aug, 2022 10:39am
The present age has seen the decline and fall of Modernism which, having slowly begun to spread across Europe in the late 19th
Published 21 Aug, 2022 01:24pm
On Pakistan’s 75th anniversary, London-based research centre Bloomsbury Pakistan launched the Bloomsbury Book Prize with the...
Published 21 Aug, 2022 01:21pm
One of the finest facets of Mohsin Hamid’s body of fiction is its exuberant play with form. This experimentation ...
Published 14 Aug, 2022 05:12am
A book on Ruttie and Jinnah’s relationship is devoid of authenticity at several places and in contravention of historical facts
Published 14 Aug, 2022 05:12am
A new novel by Haroon Khalid Akhtar combines political satire, humour and wit and will no doubt remind the reader about parallels
Published 14 Aug, 2022 05:12am
While other biographies of the Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah exist, a new book stands out with regard to three issues and for
Published 14 Aug, 2022 05:12am
A Pulitzer Prize-winning Canadian correspondent puts his own life in jeopardy to tell the story of his fixer fleeing from...
Updated 10 Aug, 2022 05:42pm
Arif Hasan’s engaging book about the history of Karachi, before its surrender to the British in 1839, is full of nuggets of...
Published 07 Aug, 2022 12:32pm
A book of essays inspired by Dr Ishrat Husain’s contributions provides good overviews of Pakistan’s economic situation
Published 07 Aug, 2022 12:26pm
In search of dusty old books that no one else had picked up from obscure shelves for many years, my classmate Robert...
Published 07 Aug, 2022 12:17pm
A gripping cultural anthropology of the development of cricket in the country places the game in the larger context of politics...
Published 31 Jul, 2022 12:13pm
Salman Haider’s verses shine a glaring light on the repression that the state doesn’t want people to talk about
Published 31 Jul, 2022 12:06pm
In a conversation with Eos, the dean of the Mushtaq Ahmad Gurmani School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Lums...
Published 31 Jul, 2022 11:59am
I keep thinking of the youth with the two little rabbits, sitting by the side of the frenzied path on the boardwalk. The two...
Published 31 Jul, 2022 11:52am
Four books by Dr Anjum Altaf tackle with great insight the problems of, and misconceptions about, education in the country...
Published 24 Jul, 2022 10:22am
A third edition of H.T. Lambrick’s obsequious account of the life of another Englishman from the Raj drives home the inherent...
Published 24 Jul, 2022 10:14am
A debut book of short stories and a novella are evidence of the author’s incisive knowledge of the vast range of communities...
Published 24 Jul, 2022 10:07am
Her male-sounding name notwithstanding, British writer George Eliot (1819-1880) was a woman. Born Mary Ann Evans, she was a...
Published 24 Jul, 2022 10:00am
Regular Books & Authors columnist Zulfikar Ghose, who passed away end of June, was a towering man of letters and among the...
Published 17 Jul, 2022 01:59pm
A historical novel set within a murder-mystery genre is an entertaining read but its postcolonial ambitions are thwarted by an...
Published 17 Jul, 2022 01:53pm
Despite some limitations of its data and analysis, a book offers some interesting insights into the low level of tax collections
Updated 19 Jul, 2022 04:28pm
In the blurb he writes for Sajjad Azhar’s new book of prose poetry, Landi Kotal Ki Laaltain [The Lanterns of Landi Kotal], poet
Updated 17 Jul, 2022 07:18pm
The first Hindi language book to win the International Booker Prize is a ‘joyous cacophony’ that is given an English translation
Published 10 Jul, 2022 03:14am
The third edition of the Quetta Literary Festival — held after a two-year pandemic break — disabuses an observer of the notion...
Published 10 Jul, 2022 03:14am
Although a medical doctor, the author writes extensively on topics ranging from current affairs and history, to books, films...
Published 10 Jul, 2022 03:14am
Translation is an art. It gets more demanding when one is translating creative prose or poetry from one language into another.
Published 10 Jul, 2022 03:14am
A nostalgic journey through the streets and grounds that produced much of Pakistan’s cricketing talent and pioneered formats
Published 10 Jul, 2022 03:14am
An intimate chronicle of a crucial era in the Subcontinent — often painted as effete and decadent — reveals the intellectual...
Published 03 Jul, 2022 12:35pm
A debut novel set just before Partition is a riveting read about luxurious lifestyles, lavish parties and forbidden romance...
Published 03 Jul, 2022 12:29pm
Lynette Viccaji’s tribute to her gregarious and strong-willed parent is a linguistic delight best savoured over a long weekend
Published 03 Jul, 2022 12:24pm
She has raised her voice against injustices to women, yet in the title of her book — Mujhe Feminist Na Kaho! — she literally
Published 03 Jul, 2022 12:15pm
In a candid account, the former captain of Pakistan’s national cricket team tells the story of his life while setting straight...
Published 03 Jul, 2022 12:01pm
Gopi Chand Narang, who passed away on June 15, was a towering scholar who kept reiterating the secular, tolerant, inclusive...
Published 26 Jun, 2022 11:52am
A debut novel by a young Pakistani author is an eminently readable book about uncomfortable topics and a very good addition to
Published 26 Jun, 2022 11:40am
Gopi Chand Narang’s gem of a critical analysis of ‘Urdu’s first complete poet’ is translated into English for the first time
Published 26 Jun, 2022 11:21am
About 30 years ago, when I plunged into the ocean of Urdu fiction with the enthusiasm of someone learning to swim, I asked...
Published 26 Jun, 2022 11:16am
Over time, Pakistani writers have provided us with so much to read that we now have quite a library. But with the mass of content
Published 19 Jun, 2022 08:27am
Musharraf Ali Farooqi’s translation of an Urdu qissa is done with panache, but the joy of reading it in the original is unmatched
Published 19 Jun, 2022 08:27am
A publication of the incomplete last novel of the giant of Hindi/ Urdu literature tantalises and grips, but leaves the reader
Updated 20 Jun, 2022 01:57pm
An excellent and diverse collection of Balochi short stories, published along with their English translations, allows us a peek...
Published 19 Jun, 2022 08:27am
Tomb of Sand, written by Geetanjali Shree and translated by Daisy Rockwell, is the winner of the 2022 International...
Published 12 Jun, 2022 08:58am
I’m writing a book about literature, Covid, race and colonialism. During my research, I was deeply moved by Roopa...
Updated 13 Jun, 2022 12:14pm
Ali Akbar Natiq’s sophomore novel touches upon so many disturbing facets of society that one is left reeling...
Published 12 Jun, 2022 08:58am
In an email conversation with Eos, journalist and author Reema Abbasi speaks about her new book: an English...
Published 12 Jun, 2022 08:58am
An English translation of a collection of bold Urdu short stories by an iconoclastic author captures how social confines of...
Updated 13 Jun, 2022 12:13pm
The first Peshawar Literature Festival proved to be a milestone in the revival of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s literary, artistic...
Published 05 Jun, 2022 11:01am
A young woman’s husband loses his memory of falling in love with her, marrying her and having kids with her. Naturally, this...
Published 05 Jun, 2022 10:54am
A collection of more than 100 poems from 16 South Asian languages, translated into Urdu, is a treat for lovers of poetry
Published 05 Jun, 2022 10:47am
We live in the age of fiction but — perhaps because of this certain part of the world to which we belong and the...
Published 05 Jun, 2022 10:34am
A memoir about growing up in India-occupied Kashmir in the 1980s and ’90s shows how the pursuit of a normal life becomes an...
Published 29 May, 2022 08:25am
A public intellectual attempts to map out the doctrinal and historical basis for a framework for economic activity and social...
Published 29 May, 2022 08:09am
A glossy coffee table book with high production values is educational and can open up doors to new avenues of interest among
Published 29 May, 2022 07:59am
The Progressive-Marxist Writers’ Movement in Urdu of the 1930s had created space for ‘revolutionary poetry’....
Updated 29 May, 2022 10:20am
Covering the first eight decades of the 20th century, a book by the illustrious Muslim author from India is for readers who wish
Published 22 May, 2022 11:09am
Ranging across Balochistan, the Waseb, Sindh, Oman and Africa, Muhammad Amir Rana’s latest novel is about characters who live in
Published 22 May, 2022 10:57am
Muhammad Ali Siddiqi continues combing through his library for those books to which he keeps returning
Published 22 May, 2022 10:04am
When asked a question about their contemporaries, famous established poets dodge giving an answer, for it would ...
Published 22 May, 2022 10:01am
An inspiring book of personal narratives from across the world reflects the enormous changes taking place in the lives of women
Published 15 May, 2022 10:03am
A slow-burner of a novel has a quirkily intriguing protagonist, but is hampered by the author’s surprising lack of control over
Published 15 May, 2022 09:57am
Former diplomat Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry’s memoir provides a full background of almost all foreign affairs issues relating to Pakistan
Published 15 May, 2022 09:40am
Hoori Noorani of the publishing house Maktaba-e-Danyal told me some months ago that she had found some fascinating...
Published 15 May, 2022 09:35am
After the miserable conditions of a government hospital in Setpur, as featured in the author’s earlier novel Tholly, readers get
Published 15 May, 2022 09:28am
Two respected academics’ book about the genesis and nature of the contemporary crisis in the country’s media is a valuable...
Published 08 May, 2022 09:42am
A slim volume by a Marxist historian theorises without pulling punches how the Pakistani state manifests its control over the...
Published 08 May, 2022 09:30am
A dream-like debut novel indicates clearly that its author has both talent and a gifted intellect, despite its deficiencies in...
Published 08 May, 2022 09:24am
“Myths, legends, tales, they are all part of our heritage which mark the way we think, live and see the world,”...
Published 08 May, 2022 09:17am
A new book is history from the perspective of a woman who experienced so much of it and an important chronology of how Pakistan
Published 01 May, 2022 10:27am
Combining an intriguing plot with fascinating characters and a tragic conclusion, a 19th century qissa is an excellent read that
Published 01 May, 2022 10:19am
Murtuza Y. Mandviwalla — chairman and CEO of the Mandviwalla Motors Group — has spent over 40 years in...
Updated 01 May, 2022 06:38pm
I have written more than once about a fascinating, deeply meaningful and yet, at first glance, somewhat odd beseeching of a very
Published 01 May, 2022 10:01am
A scholarly new book endeavours to unravel how the Subcontinent’s 19th century Muslim community came to see itself as a nation
Updated 26 Apr, 2022 02:30pm
A scholar of environmental studies traces the linkages between Pakistani women’s creative works and eco-feminism
Published 24 Apr, 2022 07:19am
In many ways, John le Carre’s swansong, Silverview, is an affirmation of his brilliance as one of the last great...
Updated 24 Apr, 2022 02:08pm
During a holiday from the school I was teaching at in mid-1990s Peshawar, I was fortunate to spend a few days in...
Published 24 Apr, 2022 07:08am
Arif Hasan’s writings on land and housing are an example of engaged scholarship, an effort to find ways to create a future city...
Published 17 Apr, 2022 11:11am
Traversing issues of exile, identity, mental illness, love, grief, parenthood, superstition and the environment, Elif Shafak’s...
Published 17 Apr, 2022 11:05am
A book attempts to discover the various influences, the evolution and development of our syncretic culture and ethos
Published 17 Apr, 2022 10:59am
Medical doctor and writer Arshad Waheed has been on the literary map for some decades now. His first Urdu novel —...
Published 17 Apr, 2022 10:54am
A cultural historian spins a yarn about a fictional state and its women that is full of captivating social and historical details
Published 10 Apr, 2022 09:43am
Pakistan’s late eminent physicist Riazuddin is the main canvas on which several crucial stories, particularly about Pakistan’s...
Published 10 Apr, 2022 09:37am
A long time ago — perhaps in the 1970s — I observed my father, Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, leafing through...
Updated 17 Apr, 2022 04:00pm
For quite some years, the author has penned a regular column for Dawn’s op-ed pages on the political situation of Pakistan.
Published 10 Apr, 2022 09:22am
The technological revolution at the end of the 20th century eliminated the audience for interviews with poets...
Updated 10 Apr, 2022 09:03am
Two journalist-authors discuss the roadblocks for new talent in Pakistan’s publishing industry...
Published 03 Apr, 2022 07:51am
A poetry collection in which the poet is able to successfully entwine his feelings with those of the well-known poets while...
Published 03 Apr, 2022 07:51am
Sara Suleri Goodyear (1953-2022) was perhaps best known for her memoir Meatless Days, but a close friend and collaborator rem...
Updated 05 Apr, 2022 09:31am
The Zeenat Haroon Rashid Writing Prize for Women is now open for submissions in the nonfiction category.
The...
Published 03 Apr, 2022 07:33am
Despite the unseasonably warm weather, the Lahore Literary Festival’s return to an in-person event showed that festival audien...
Published 27 Mar, 2022 07:06am
It is ironic that when politicians in power are facing the Ides of March, the literary community in Pakistan is...
Published 27 Mar, 2022 07:06am
Translating world literature into Urdu, despite its social benefits, is often a thankless job. Who, then, are the passionate...
Updated 28 Mar, 2022 05:25pm
Two economists from Pakistan and India delve into the intellectual aspects of Ghalib’s Urdu poetry and offer a primer for a...
Published 27 Mar, 2022 07:06am
The 11th-12th century polymath, Abu Hamid Ghazali (known in the mediaeval Latin West as Algazel, and sometimes as...
Published 20 Mar, 2022 07:17am
Some books on China, Japan, Mongolia and Russia, as well as a few very insightful works on the Arab world
Published 20 Mar, 2022 07:17am
A debut novel follows a disillusioned journalist who escapes from the suffocation of his homeland, only to find himself unable to
Published 20 Mar, 2022 07:17am
A civil servant shares his experiences of the less-discussed remote areas of Pakistan in a well-written seminal book that also...
Published 20 Mar, 2022 07:17am
There’s a tree, not far from my home, that blooms for about a fortnight. No one has yet been able to tell me...
Published 13 Mar, 2022 07:12am
