Adil Najam
We at ATP like books. Over the last many months we have featured and discussed a number of books that relate to Pakistan in various ways.
I must confess that I had always hoped that we would talk more about books than we have. I hope we will be able to do so in the future. As a step towards that goal, we would like to invite our readers to share with us your suggestions of books on Pakistan that are worth reading.
This is not a popularity contest. We have no awards to give. We merely want to collate a list of books on Pakistan that people consider to be interesting reads. Specially those that you would consider recommending to others for whatever reason.
We have only two criteria:
- First, that the books you suggest must be about Pakistan, and significantly so. We, of course, realize that many Pakistanis read many books that are not about Pakistan, but the focus of this blog is not only on ‘All’ Things Pakistan, but also ‘Only’ things about Pakistan.
- Second, for the purpose of this first exercise please restrict your suggestions to books in the English language. This is a pragmatic, and not an ideological, criteria. The universe of books in Urdu is much larger - especially when one includes works of fiction and poetry - and hopefully we will have a separate exercise on those. For now, we wish to start small by focusing only on English language books.
The plan right now is to make this post and list a standing feature and to keep adding to it as readers share their suggestions and ideas. Hopefully this will be a useful service to those interested in Pakistan and Pakistaniat.
Just finished reading “The Wishmaker” by Ali Sethi. Pretty good book, would recomend it to anyone, especially if you are a lahori.
Its a new book, and Ali Sethi is a really young, talented author. Good read.
Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid
A novel that provides excellent commentary on the political, economic and social situation in Pakistan at the time of the nuclear tests.
Breaking the curfew by Emma Duncan
The above is a commentary on Zia days
Another wonderful book to be released in July 2010
Pakistan: The Next Asian Super Power, by Adnan Virk
I like “The idea of Pakistan” by Stephen P. Cohen
I recommend “Breaking Links” by Razia Fasih Ahmad. This is a historical novel surrounding the events of 1971 - the break up of Pakistan. Published by Oxford University Press, it’s one of the few books I have seen on this topic and some reviewers have called it a good historical record in addition to being an interesting novel.
I like the book ‘ Pakistan drift into extremism’ as it portrays a true picture of how our country has gradually drowned into extremism and the measure that must be taken for Pakistan to be saved. You guys should give it a read. Its very informative.
Anyone suggest a journey into disillusionment by sherbaz mazari?