Ayesha

Saadat Hasan Manto (1912-1955) was an established Urdu short story writer and a rising screenwriter in Bombay at the time of India's partition in 1947, and he is perhaps best known for the short stories he wrote following his migration to Lahore in newly formed Pakistan. Ayesha Jalal draws on Manto's stories, sketches, and essays, as well as a trove of his private letters, to present an intimate history of partition and its devastating toll.

Beyond the Border, based on two journeys that Yoginder Sikand undertook to Pakistan, covering Lahore, Multan, Hyderabad (Sindh), Moenjo Daro, Bhit Shah, and Islamabad, among others, is a strikingly unconventional account of what life is like for "ordinary" Pakistanis. The Pakistan he discovers only remotely resembles the stereotypical Muslim nation of the Hindu imagination. Departing from the fiercely polemical rhetoric common in Indian and Pakistani accounts of each other, Yoginder Sikand dispels the myths that have filtered into the Indian psyche about Pakistan being the terrible other.

Munoz provides new insight into Benazir Bhutto’s unprecedented rise and an unflinching, minute-by-minute narrative of the assassination itself. With impeccable research, Munoz also situates Bhutto in the decades-long history of U.S.-Pakistan relations and the emergence of global terrorism, pinpointing her death as the moment when those relations changed forever. The result is a gripping narrative of Pakistan’s turbulent political realities and the death of its leading politician.

Ibn-e-Insha, real name Sher Muhammad Khan was a Leftist Urdu poet, humorist, travelogue writer and columnist. He also served the UN for some time and this enabled him to visit a lot of places and was the reason for his subsequent travalogues. Some of the places he visited include Japan, Phillippines, China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Afghanistan, Iran, India, France, UK, Turkey and the US. Nagri Nagri Phira Musafir is a humorous and fascinating account of many such travels.