A personal record that gives a glimpse into those aspects of Pakistan’s history on which authorised texts tend to remain
Published 19 Nov, 2017 06:49am
Novel-writing is a desperate struggle against the community imposed by the world. It is a fight against so-called...
Published 19 Nov, 2017 06:49am
Hollywood actress Rose McGowan’s memoir, Brave, is scheduled to be published by HarperCollins in January 2018.The...
Published 12 Nov, 2017 06:56am
The recent demise of Dina Wadia, the only child of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, reminded me of Lieutenant...
Published 12 Nov, 2017 06:56am
A British journalist spends a year studying Muslims in the United Kingdom
Published 12 Nov, 2017 06:56am
A fantasy novel with a heroine straight out of a nightmare
Published 12 Nov, 2017 06:56am
Farahnaz Ispahani’s 2015 book, recently published in Pakistan, documents discrimination against religious minorities,
Published 12 Nov, 2017 06:56am
At another time in another place, a writer complained in the preface to his novel.
Updated 13 Nov, 2017 11:47am
The recently concluded Sindh Literature Festival successfully jettisoned the baggage of previous festivals
Published 12 Nov, 2017 06:56am
Two compilations attempt to shed light on an intellectual giant
Published 12 Nov, 2017 06:56am
Recently I’ve been reading Lauren Elkin’s Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and...
Published 05 Nov, 2017 06:45am
A history of Pakistani English writing examines its origins and thematic interests from the 20th century onwards
Published 05 Nov, 2017 06:45am
In remembrance of the poet and scholar who lived and died a revolutionary anarchist
Published 05 Nov, 2017 06:45am
Peter Carey recommends The
Fictions of Bruno SchulzTwo-time Man Booker Prize winner Peter Carey’s recommendation...
Published 05 Nov, 2017 06:45am
Terry Eagleton, one of the leading cultural critics and literary scholars of our times, comments on Irish society in...
Published 05 Nov, 2017 06:45am
A new Revisionist history of Islam attempts to question the basic foundations of the religion, but is riddled with
Published 05 Nov, 2017 06:45am
An experimental novel about race, belonging and the loss of a mother
Published 05 Nov, 2017 06:45am
The military’s hold over Egypt is so absolute, and its corruption so endemic, its story beggars belief even for readers
Published 05 Nov, 2017 06:45am
It was a cold and misty Islamabad morning some 15 years ago when a friend wanted me to drive him to a posh...
Published 29 Oct, 2017 06:06am
Purporting to offer fresh insights on negotiations over Afghanistan, this book focuses on painting India as a major
Published 29 Oct, 2017 06:06am
Bikharta Samaaj: The Colombianization of Pakistan Farrukh Sohail Goindi Arguing that the breakdown of society
Published 29 Oct, 2017 06:06am
A poignant account of struggling with a life-changing health disorder
Published 29 Oct, 2017 06:06am
Ten thousand reincarnations to get it right — but if all you end up with is loss of individuality, what’s the difference
Published 29 Oct, 2017 06:06am
Late summer, 1991. On a break between teaching classes at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), I found...
Published 29 Oct, 2017 06:06am
Regional language poetry moves away from traditional settings and themes
Published 29 Oct, 2017 06:06am
The Man Booker Prize 2017 winner is an experimental debut about life, death and that which lies in between
Published 29 Oct, 2017 06:06am
Would you hire this guy?The candidate is hopeless with deadlines and alternates between undisciplined meandering and...
Published 22 Oct, 2017 07:01am
An anthology of stories from around the world depicts djinns via different cultural lenses
Published 22 Oct, 2017 07:01am
An authoritative account of how the world’s most wanted man managed to evade the greatest manhunt
Published 22 Oct, 2017 07:01am
Nikita Lalwani recommends In other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal MueenuddinNikita Lalwani’s first book, Gifted,...
Published 22 Oct, 2017 07:01am
Constantine P. Cavafy, regarded as the most distinguished Greek poet of the 20th century, largely draws upon ...
Published 22 Oct, 2017 07:01am
A contentious but thought-provoking book is marred by poor editing
Published 22 Oct, 2017 07:01am
Former Indian High Commissioner T.C.A. Raghavan charts the ups and downs of neighbourly relations
Published 22 Oct, 2017 07:01am
Allama Iqbal’s Tulip of Sinai – from A Message from the East (Payam-i-Mashriq) M. Hadi Hussain, Shireen Gheba Najib
Published 15 Oct, 2017 07:04am
Neither an obituary of Toheed Ahmed nor a review of his work, this column — appearing on his 70th birth ...
Published 15 Oct, 2017 07:04am
The 2017 Nobel Prize for literature goes to...
Published 15 Oct, 2017 07:04am
Historical fiction, ostensibly about Lady Mountbatten, sidelines her for the story of her fictional secretary
Published 15 Oct, 2017 07:04am
A debut fantasy novel draws readers into medieval Russia and manages to create empathy for women’s struggles
Updated 16 Oct, 2017 10:10am
What do I say? And what do I write? My eyes have lost their vision, and my heart its joy. Hands tremble, And my...
Updated 15 Oct, 2017 06:35pm
October 17 marks the bicentennial of the birth of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, who exerted a defining influence on Indian Muslim
Updated 17 Oct, 2019 12:04pm
A worthy sequel to a YA novel is heavier and darker than the first
Published 08 Oct, 2017 06:38am
A historical-materialistic approach analysing the Granth Sahib opens up new ways of reading the spiritual and cultural
Updated 16 Jan, 2020 11:27am
I recently met up with British-Pakistani author Qaisra Shahraz at her house in Manchester to discuss The Concubine...
Published 08 Oct, 2017 06:38am
An English translation of a well-known Urdu poet, novelist and short story writer’s autobiography captures
Published 08 Oct, 2017 06:38am
A stark exposition of the conditions of women prisoners in Pakistan and a brave teenager’s remarkable personal struggle
Published 08 Oct, 2017 06:38am
Dr Syed Qasim Jalal ka Adbi Safar: Nisf Sadi Ka Qissa Dr Sajjad Haider Parvez Written with the intent to provide
Published 08 Oct, 2017 06:38am
As we approach the second birth centenary of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, he is being criticised to the extent of being...
Published 08 Oct, 2017 06:38am
A pictorial of the multiple religions practiced in Pakistan is a reminder of how far we’ve strayed from our founder’s
Published 08 Oct, 2017 06:38am
Mohsin Hamid recommends Pereira Maintains by Antonio TabucchiExit West, Mohsin Hamid’s fourth novel about ...
Published 01 Oct, 2017 04:25am
Dao Paich M. Naeem Abrar A collection of articles on serious issues, yet written with a humorous slant, with such
Published 01 Oct, 2017 04:25am
Art has the large embrace and inherent capacity to divulge complex emotions. It can rise above the mundane to make ...
Published 01 Oct, 2017 04:25am
Commemorative stones of the Thar Desert tell long-forgotten tales of heroes, loyalty and valour
Published 01 Oct, 2017 04:25am
A story that depicts the strength of women and the desperate attempts to retain cultural identity in the face of erasure
Published 01 Oct, 2017 04:25am
A new translation presents a fully restored and uncensored version of a classic about Russian women who enlisted
Published 01 Oct, 2017 04:25am
Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Goldilocks. One day, while strolling about in a dark wood, she...
Published 01 Oct, 2017 04:25am
Master storyteller Ismat Chughtai often strips away the rose-tinted hues with which
reminiscences of childhood
Published 01 Oct, 2017 04:25am
A pilgrimage to his soul made Karbala the voice of Iftikhar Arif’s expression
Published 01 Oct, 2017 04:25am
An imaginative debut that veers away from the tried and tested formula of Pakistani English-language fiction
Published 24 Sep, 2017 06:42am
I have been exploring Goethe’s concept of ‘world literature’ for a while. The questions Goethe raised become...
Published 24 Sep, 2017 06:42am
Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Paul Auster’s latest novel is his magnum opus, but is a dense and cerebral book
Published 24 Sep, 2017 06:42am
Far from a hagiography, an American historian’s latest book on Emperor Aurangzeb explodes widely held myths about
Published 24 Sep, 2017 06:42am
Lately it has become fashionable for the affluent and the nouveau riche in metropolitan Pakistan to mock and...
Published 24 Sep, 2017 06:42am
A snapshot of mountain crafts before urbanisation seeps in
Published 24 Sep, 2017 06:42am
A translation of Bertolt Brecht’s poetry seasons universal thoughts with local flavour
Updated 25 Sep, 2017 01:57pm
Half a century ago, a competition for a first book of poems, to be judged by W.H. Auden and Stephen Spender, for...
Published 17 Sep, 2017 07:01am
What could have inspired the personal assistant of a stage actor in the Victorian era to pen one of the most ...
Published 17 Sep, 2017 07:01am
“Well, people from your part of the world spend their weekends in London watching cheap Bollywood thrillers at ...
Published 17 Sep, 2017 07:01am
A collection of diverse ideas on India shows that common ground between India and Pakistan is still very substantial
Published 17 Sep, 2017 07:01am
Amjad Ali Khadim’s collection of poems addresses the turmoil of the present world
Published 17 Sep, 2017 07:01am
An inventive crime thriller that blurs the line between legality and moral question
Published 17 Sep, 2017 07:01am
Short stories from the Frenchman writing in Urdu explore literary truths about famous Pakistanis
Published 17 Sep, 2017 07:01am
Arundhati Roy’s new novel, longlisted for the 2017 Man Booker Prize, is a story of persecution, albeit one in which
Published 17 Sep, 2017 07:01am
Could the shattering of Greece’s economy in 2015 be a deliberate attempt to maintain imbalance in the European Union?
Published 10 Sep, 2017 07:04am
A debut novel that has all the elements of a rollicking good ride, but falls somewhat short of the mark
Published 10 Sep, 2017 07:04am
The veteran journalist, broadcaster and fiction writer has collected 75 columns written by him between 2008 and 2014
Published 10 Sep, 2017 07:04am
We live in a society where for weeks, the headline news on television revolved around the patchy conjugal life of a...
Published 10 Sep, 2017 07:04am
A proposal for global governance neglects to account for key factors
Published 10 Sep, 2017 07:04am
History is temporal. The historical model tends to build walls between eras, creating boxes of time. Literary texts...
Published 10 Sep, 2017 07:04am
Of course the question of how I feel about Daesh is black and white.
Updated 10 Sep, 2017 12:11pm
A modern retelling of an ancient classic spotlights today’s multicultural world caught up in the web of racism
Published 10 Sep, 2017 07:04am
While observers and analysts of Pakistani Anglophone literature focus exclusively on writers and authors, they ...
Published 03 Sep, 2017 07:54am
A former member of the Afghan Mujahideen recounts his experience of living through a war
Published 01 Sep, 2017 07:54am
Muhammad Ali Siddiqi’s memoirs Waiting for Dawn: 50 Years of Turbulent History as Seen Through the Eyes of a...
Published 01 Sep, 2017 07:54am
Kamila Shamsie’s new novel Home Fire, now longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, has already been hailed as one of...
Published 01 Sep, 2017 07:54am
“Faster than fairies, faster than witches/ Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches.” Robert Louis Stevenson’s...
Published 01 Sep, 2017 07:54am
Ayesha Karim, co-founder and COO of Alexi, explains how the service enlists the help of authors and other cultural
Published 01 Sep, 2017 07:54am
Despite obvious differences, the lives of those who have made it in the world and those who want to make it, are not all
Published 01 Sep, 2017 07:54am
A spy novel set in 16th century Venice features the Bard as a young man caught up in an action-packed escapade
Published 01 Sep, 2017 07:54am
Writer, poet, scholar and broadcaster Dr Aslam Farrukhi’s pen-sketches are a unique treat
Published 01 Sep, 2017 07:54am
As technology evolves at exponential speed, the challenge is to ensure companies survive and adapt instead of becoming
Published 27 Aug, 2017 07:00am
Dr Ruth Pfau’s raison d’être is of greater relevance to Pakistan’s existential questions.
Updated 28 Aug, 2017 12:59pm
In August 2007, when smartphones and social media ‘connections’ weren’t ubiquitous, I returned to London from...
Published 27 Aug, 2017 07:00am
How the famous Government College, Lahore, established in 1864, became a full-fledged university
Published 27 Aug, 2017 07:00am
The leader of the United Kingdom’s Labour party will now be the newest superhero on the block to boast of his own...
Published 27 Aug, 2017 07:00am
Irony is wasted on the young.The first time that kids born during the Monica Lewinsky scandal were old enough to ...
Published 27 Aug, 2017 07:00am
Concluding the series exploring Pakistani Urdu writing over the past 70 years
Published 27 Aug, 2017 07:00am
The darling of Indian cinema from the 1960s and ’70s has decided that now is the time to tell all
Published 20 Aug, 2017 07:52am
Khwaab aur Mausam Aziz Ejaz A television producer who has served state-run media for 32 years, Aziz Ejaz’s collection
Published 20 Aug, 2017 07:52am
Each of the five stories here tends to fly in its own direction
Published 20 Aug, 2017 07:52am
