The Nine Lives of Pakistan

Dispatches from a Divided Nation

The Nine Lives of Pakistan
Declan Walsh
RRP:
NZ$ 21.99
Our Price:
NZ$ 17.59
Paperback
h198 x 129mm - 368pg
22 Jul 2021 UK
International import eta 7-19 days
9781408868492
Out Of Stock
Currently no stock in-store, stock is sourced to your order
The demise of Pakistan - a country with a reputation for volatility, brutality and radical Islam - is regularly predicted. But things rarely turn out as expected, as renowned journalist Declan Walsh knows well. Over a decade covering the country, his travels took him from the raucous port of Karachi to the gilded salons of Lahore to the lawless frontier of Waziristan, encountering Pakistanis whose lives offer a compelling portrait of this land of contradictions. He meets a crusading lawyer who risks her life to fight for society' s most marginalised, taking on everyone including the powerful military establishment; an imperious chieftain spouting poetry at his desert fort; a roguish politician waging a mini-war against the Taliban; and a charismatic business tycoon who moves into politics and seems to be riding high - till he takes up the wrong cause. Lastly, Walsh meets a spy whose orders once involved following him, and who might finally be able to answer the question that haunts him: why the Pakistanis suddenly expelled him from their country. Intimate and complex, unravelling the many mysteries of state and religion, this formidable book offers an arresting account of life in a country that, often as not, seems to be at war with itself.
Declan Walsh describes, with intellectual power and cool elegance, a much-misunderstood country. All those interested in South Asia and its complex politics and culture should read it -- Pankaj Mishra, author of ' Age of Anger' ' An irresistible combination of storytelling panache and in-depth knowledge; Declan Walsh brings vividly to life characters and situations that illuminate some of the most significant phases of Pakistan' s history -- Kamila Shamsie, Winner of the Women' s Prize for Fiction A wonderful book that sets a new benchmark for non-fiction about the complex palace of mirrors that is Pakistan . . . Walsh has a rapier wit, a talent for skilfully sketched pen portraits and a sharp eye for tragedy, paradox and absurdity. With The Nine Lives of Pakistan he has produced a beautifully, lightly, fluently written book that is as profoundly nuanced as it is sharply perceptive -- William Dalrymple
Declan Walsh covered Pakistan for over a decade, for the Guardian and the New York Times. The Pakistani authorities expelled him in 2013, citing unspecified "undesirable activities". Walsh has reported from sub-Saharan Africa, Afghanistan, the United States and across the Middle East. He lives in Cairo.
Status: Indent title, imported to order
ISBN-13: 9781408868492
Published: 22 Jul 2021
Published In: United Kingdom
Imprint: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Format: Paperback
Height: 198mm
Width: 129mm
Pages: 368

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