Joan Didion, who passed away December 23, always kept faith with the written word. Her attention to the craft of writing...
Published 09 Jan, 2022 07:16am
An anthropologist’s treatise on the funerary art of Sindh is essential reading for informed laypersons and a priceless record...
Updated 16 Jan, 2022 07:41am
In 1987, it was the month of November when my classmate Ashraf Noor and I bunked our scheduled visit to a factory in...
Published 09 Jan, 2022 07:16am
A new series of old Urdu ‘qissas’, along with their English translations, is being published in Pakistan. The first revolves...
Published 02 Jan, 2022 09:40am
The more I read from the Urdu classics, the more I want to translate these great stories, and the more I translate, the more...
Published 02 Jan, 2022 09:31am
Aamer Hussein’s creative memoir is a book of such great riches and, indeed, courage, that it is difficult to put it down
Published 02 Jan, 2022 09:26am
I’ve been cleaning out closets; dusting bookshelves packed with love. Every book in this big room, every artefact, photograph...
Published 02 Jan, 2022 09:22am
Celebrating a talented player who started out as a 13-year-old ball-picker in 2007 and went on to captain Pakistan’s national...
Published 02 Jan, 2022 09:20am
Mustansar Hussain Tarar’s latest works, as always, negotiate the ‘gap’ between imagined and real worlds, between what the...
Updated 26 Dec, 2021 04:30pm
A memoir traces several displacements, from Kashmir to Britain to Karachi and East Pakistan and offers a rare look in the window
Published 26 Dec, 2021 07:01am
Salman Rashid’s lovingly written and beautifully produced treatise is a perfect travel companion to those who wish to visit Gwadar
Published 26 Dec, 2021 07:01am
During the final decade of the Raj, when I lived with my Sialkoti family in Bombay [Mumbai], which attracted natives from...
Published 26 Dec, 2021 07:01am
When eminent psychologist Alicia Edward’s own mental health begins to deteriorate, her husband Omar, who is a South African
Published 19 Dec, 2021 07:05am
A new book makes for a good, reflective piece on Pakistan’s myriad education issues, but especially about the medium of
Published 19 Dec, 2021 07:05am
Spanning the months from 1970’s election results to the break-up of Pakistan in 1971, a novella brings out the broader human,
Published 19 Dec, 2021 07:05am
A debut collection of essays is a medical resident’s coronavirus diary as well as a book of big ideas about family, migration...
Published 19 Dec, 2021 07:05am
I consider the translation of literary works a great service to humanity, yet the effort put into translation seldom...
Published 19 Dec, 2021 07:05am
In Saad Shafqat’s vibrant and page-turner medical drama, two surgeons find themselves pitted against each other for the...
Published 12 Dec, 2021 06:54am
Saad Shafqat is a leading neurologist at Karachi’s prestigious Aga Khan University Hospital and cricket columnist...
Published 12 Dec, 2021 06:54am
A political scientist proposes an alternative model for governance in the part of the disputed region under Pakistan’s admi...
Published 12 Dec, 2021 06:54am
Despite his belligerence, his frequent quarrels and abruptness, and his preoccupation with the weird, frightening...
Updated 12 Dec, 2021 02:59pm
There isn’t only love for a person; there is your love for your everyday things. I love nature above all. It attracts me more...
Published 05 Dec, 2021 07:01am
George Saunders’s latest book, about the craft of writing, is a peek into what a classroom helmed by the award-winning writer...
Published 05 Dec, 2021 07:01am
A debut novel, about childhood trauma and how it can change us and continue to shape us as adults, makes for some voyeuristic...
Published 05 Dec, 2021 07:01am
Arif Mahmood’s handsome book of photographs taken at Sufi shrines over 32 years is not simply an ethnographic documentation...
Published 05 Dec, 2021 07:01am
Mustafa Akyol’s latest book is another open invitation to critically examine the popular Islamic discourse about a value that...
Published 28 Nov, 2021 07:08am
The Frankfurt Book Fair is the world’s largest book fair and this year was also the first physical book fair since the...
Published 28 Nov, 2021 07:08am
A compilation of essays on feminism in Urdu is a welcome development, but could have been better thought through...
Published 28 Nov, 2021 07:08am
Regular readers will know I’ve been thinking about pandemic literature since Covid-19 went global in early 2020. A...
Published 28 Nov, 2021 07:08am
Soon after his five-year labour of love and determination — his book Once Upon a Time in Murree — was published,...
Published 21 Nov, 2021 07:32am
Murree of yore, both colonial and postcolonial, comes alive in the pages of this showstopper of a coffee table book,...
Published 21 Nov, 2021 07:32am
A British-Pakistani poet’s satirical epic is fine poetry delivered through playful lyrical flourishes woven with astute...
Published 21 Nov, 2021 07:32am
In these times of death, disease, depression and sorrow, we have lost many literary stalwarts, from Shamsur Rahman...
Published 21 Nov, 2021 07:32am
The review of Javed Jabbar’s book “But Prime Minister...” by Safiya Aftab, published in Books and Authors on...
Published 21 Nov, 2021 07:32am
A debut novel weaves together a picture of denizens of Karachi who have had enough of being pushed around and who decide to...
Updated 14 Nov, 2021 12:38pm
A former diplomat-turned-wanderer attempts to unearth the soul of places he visits
by connecting them to writers and artists...
Published 14 Nov, 2021 07:13am
An excellent anthology of writers muses on what it means to be displaced from one’s origins and to be Sindhi outside in the...
Published 14 Nov, 2021 07:13am
What is the Urdu for ‘fiddle dee dee’, or the English for ‘Sarra rara rara’? Are those words really English...
Updated 15 Nov, 2021 11:13am
The winner of this year’s Zeenat Haroon Rashid (ZHR) Writing Prize for Women is Alia Ahmed for her short story...
Published 14 Nov, 2021 07:13am
Benazir Bhutto during her first tenure as prime minister at the PTV headquarters, Islamabad, in 1988 with PTV’s...
Updated 16 Nov, 2021 08:38pm
With good and bad feudals, a love triangle and nods to other hot-button contemporary issues, this novel could very well be...
Published 07 Nov, 2021 07:03am
A brilliant new book consolidates a large, understudied and unseen part of the visual documentation of the times of the...
Published 07 Nov, 2021 07:03am
Those of us who thought of ourselves as serious writers at the time dismissed the Booker as designed to promote popular writers...
Published 07 Nov, 2021 07:03am
In this very important book for parents, caregivers and educators to share with children, the author...
Published 07 Nov, 2021 07:03am
An enjoyable Young Adult novel centred on Pakistani American teenagers clearly showcases the author’s lived experience, which...
Published 31 Oct, 2021 07:05am
Peerzada Salman’s first collection of short stories is a musing on life and mortality, love and estrangement, and memory and...
Published 31 Oct, 2021 07:05am
A new translation provides insights for history lovers and academics into 18th and 19th century wars in Sindh, Hind and...
Published 31 Oct, 2021 07:05am
Fantasy fiction writer H.P. Lovecraft once said, “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the...
Published 31 Oct, 2021 07:05am
Zain Saeed’s quintessentially Pakistani, fast-paced debut novel written with elegance and humour will most certainly be appr...
Published 24 Oct, 2021 06:24am
A travel show host’s first book of English poems is evidence of his romanticism, his love of nature and his ability to impal...
Updated 28 Oct, 2021 04:26pm
Abdulrazak Gurnah is only the second person of sub-Saharan African origin to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 120 years...
Published 24 Oct, 2021 06:24am
This is how Faiz softens human suffering, turning chains into silk threads. It is supremely remarkable that here is an acti...
Updated 24 Oct, 2021 11:45am
With the help of plenty of photographs, some newspaper clippings and a host of other personal
Published 24 Oct, 2021 06:24am
Mustansar Hussain Tarar’s latest travelogue documents a valuable part of Cuban society, in contrast to the usual discussion around
Published 17 Oct, 2021 06:39am
Zaitoon Bano, whose illustrious literary career had an undeniable impact on Pashto literature and Pakhtun culture, passed away
Published 17 Oct, 2021 06:39am
A book celebrates and dissects Adeela Suleman’s art which focuses on the relationship between death, violence, power.
Updated 17 Oct, 2021 12:52pm
Akbar, my occasional partner at literary Snakes and Ladders, wants to write a story with me as its main character. It’s taken him
Published 17 Oct, 2021 06:39am
A sophomore novel explores the relationships individuals have with others and the mental disturbances and emotional baggage...
Published 10 Oct, 2021 06:36am
A handsome coffee table book about the various religions in Pakistan could have done with better attention to editorial and...
Published 10 Oct, 2021 06:36am
A valuable addition to political science literature on ethnic studies attempts to cover all sides of Sindh’s politics...
Published 10 Oct, 2021 06:36am
At the very outset, the author clarifies that this is not a translation of his memoirs, published in Urdu as Yaadon Ke...
Published 10 Oct, 2021 06:36am
Sally Rooney is everywhere just now because her eagerly-awaited third novel came out on September 7. In Beautiful...
Published 10 Oct, 2021 06:36am
An utterly gripping story about the life of an Austrian Nazi war criminal who was indicted for mass murder, but escaped...
Published 03 Oct, 2021 07:11am
An important documentation of popular Thari folk songs not only introduces the reader to their rustic beauty, but also...
Published 03 Oct, 2021 07:11am
Books that have been long companions...
Published 03 Oct, 2021 07:11am
Masjid Qasim Ali Khan is a historic landmark in the city of Peshawar. Built in the late 17th century, this 350-year...
Published 03 Oct, 2021 07:11am
A collection of essays on the women’s movement in Pakistan brings the past and present together in a valuable resource that
Published 26 Sep, 2021 11:56am
A new novel paints Pakistan as a portrait that acts as a kind of mirror, which reveals the dissipation of our resources, and our
Published 26 Sep, 2021 11:51am
A convincingly argued treatise on the need to explore Muslim identity in the same ways that race, gender and citizenship have
Published 26 Sep, 2021 11:44am
Naqsh Faryaadi is the first ghazal in the 1816 manuscript of Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib’s Divan. In the 1821 manuscript, it has
Published 26 Sep, 2021 11:40am
A volume of accessible essays collectively takes a long view to understand how historical and political developments — ...
Published 19 Sep, 2021 10:01am
A debut poetry collection showcases a poet with great promise and has much to offer, including pertinent and topical comment on
Published 19 Sep, 2021 09:58am
A child’s education begins at birth, not in the school, and is automatically in the mother tongue. Any interruption in the
Published 19 Sep, 2021 09:50am
There are three women Urdu poets — long settled in North America now — who continue to surprise and elate their...
Published 19 Sep, 2021 09:43am
Coming from a Dubai-based lawyer and adviser on banking and corporate matters, this compact yet comprehensive guide meets the
Published 19 Sep, 2021 09:39am
An anthropologist turns his eye to the largest Sufi shrine in Pakistan and gives us remarkable insight into the growth of the
Published 12 Sep, 2021 11:32am
A Pakistani diplomat’s recollections of his experiences in the foreign service often leave the reader enveloped in a deep air of
Published 12 Sep, 2021 11:23am
With a sparse and to-the-point writing style, a collection of short stories relies heavily on the reader’s ability to read between
Published 12 Sep, 2021 11:23am
While there’s little doubt that some of the finest English-language poetry, especially in the 20th century, has...
Published 12 Sep, 2021 10:45am
Education in Pakistan desperately needs reform. A book argues that without a larger advocacy movement that puts pressure on...
Published 05 Sep, 2021 07:15am
A Booker Prize long-listed novel delves into the lives of characters trying to liberate themselves from being slotted in boxes...
Published 05 Sep, 2021 07:15am
Discarded, unearthed, mislaid… then retrieved again, a manuscript about Sufi saint Nizamuddin Aulia spans centuries and...
Published 05 Sep, 2021 07:15am
Never have I come across a single student who fails to understand Urdu...
Published 05 Sep, 2021 07:15am
Those expecting to be regaled by a highly supernatural tale are bound to be disappointed, but there is plenty else to be...
Published 29 Aug, 2021 07:06am
Last Monday evening — three days before her novel Sunlight on a Broken Column and her collection of stories ...
Published 29 Aug, 2021 07:06am
Words have a cultural and political history. And the latter often involves manipulations and assertion of power...
Published 29 Aug, 2021 07:06am
The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists presents a comprehensive historical record and political history as well as a highly...
Published 29 Aug, 2021 07:06am
A historian’s latest work is one that deserves to be read by everyone interested in finding the intellectual and political...
Published 22 Aug, 2021 07:03am
A debut novella focuses on the rigid gender roles Pakistani society dictates, told through the emotional story of a woman...
Published 22 Aug, 2021 07:03am
Transcriptions of interviews conducted with the Subcontinent’s greatest musicians provide fascinating insights and anecdotes...
Published 22 Aug, 2021 07:03am
I write this from self-isolation. Our elder son has Covid, luckily a mild case. We’re not going near him and wear...
Updated 22 Aug, 2021 03:05pm
The Sindh Graduates Association (SGA) was established in 1972 to provide students emerging from rural schools in Sindh...
Published 22 Aug, 2021 07:03am
Ishtiaq Ahmed’s latest book sets out to challenge the assumption that Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah was a staunch secularist...
Published 15 Aug, 2021 05:34am
A book brings together a poet’s urgent need to be heard and to relate the betrayal and loss faced
in life with her creative...
Published 15 Aug, 2021 05:34am
Kazuo Ishiguro’s first novel since his Nobel Prize is a meditation on intelligence, loneliness, empathy, faith and, perhaps,...
Published 15 Aug, 2021 05:34am
In the early 14th century, Shaikh Mahmoud Shabistari wrote Gulshan-i-Raaz [Garden of Secrets], an epic poem in...
Published 15 Aug, 2021 05:34am
A well-researched book focuses on the transformation that has taken place in India under Narendra Modi and the stranglehold...
Published 08 Aug, 2021 06:53am
Despite the shortcomings of a debuting writer, a novel from Balochistan is a worthy read, addressing the practice of ‘honour...
Published 08 Aug, 2021 06:53am
Profiles of 13 women provide essential reading for those interested in understanding the plausible root causes of radicalisat...
Published 08 Aug, 2021 06:53am
