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.
Very good selection of books. I also think that you should have a seperate page for book reccomendations and make different lists on it.
‘Daughter of the East’ by the ever-exiled Benazir Bhutto.
Your readers may enjoy a new suspense fiction called ONE WAY TO PAKISTAN by an expatriate gora who grew up in the NWFP. See Amazon books for reader comments as well as the “Look inside” section for content and style.
Another good one that no one mentioned so far is “My Feudal Lord” by Tehmina Durrani. She is ex-wife of Mustafa Khar – hard to put down once you get going with it. Well written, scandalous, insightful of Pakistani upper-class, feudal/political culture.
On autobiographies, I would highly recommend “Unlikely Beginnings” by General A.O. Mitha. Very absorbing read – from a soldier’s pen who left most of his family in India, married a Christian woman, rose to the rank of Maj General – and prematurely retired by Bhutto.
On fiction, I’d recommend Thalassa Ali’s two books “A Singular Hostage” and “A Beggar at the Gate”. Third and final book in this sequel is due out this summer. It is a historical novel set in Ranjit Singh’s Lahore – written from perspective of an English woman. Author is a American widow of a Pakistani businessman who spent many years in Pakistan.
Enjoy and please keep book recommendations coming!