Start here
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders
Daniyal Mueenuddin
Short stories, 2009
Interlinked stories of feudal landowners, servants and farm workers on a southern Punjab estate.
Books set in Pakistan
Three books by writers from Pakistan, set there, that give a real sense of the place, starting with In Other Rooms, Other Wonders and The Wandering Falcon.
About the literature of Pakistan
Waris Shah's Heer, an eighteenth-century Punjabi poem of doomed love, is among the best-loved works in the literature of Pakistan. Alongside it stands the Sindhi poetry of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, also of the eighteenth century, collected in the Shah Jo Risalo. Urdu is the national language, writers also work in Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto and Balochi, and many write in English. Partition in 1947 and the border country of the northwest recur in the writing.
Jamil Ahmad's The Wandering Falcon links stories of nomads and tribesmen in the tribal areas and Balochistan. Fatima Bhutto's Songs of Blood and Sword is a memoir of her family, the Bhutto dynasty, in Sindh and Karachi. Daniyal Mueenuddin's In Other Rooms, Other Wonders follows landowners and servants on a southern Punjab estate.
By writers from Pakistan
“Find a copy” goes to Bookshop.org. If you buy, we earn a small commission and independent bookshops get a share too.
The Wandering Falcon
Jamil Ahmad
Short stories, 2011
Linked stories of nomads, tribesmen and border-dwellers in the tribal areas and Balochistan, and the old ways that are fading.
Songs of Blood and Sword
Fatima Bhutto
Memoir, 2010
A memoir of the Bhutto political dynasty in Sindh and Karachi, with power, violence and family loyalty.
More from Asia
Afghanistan Armenia Azerbaijan Bahrain Bangladesh Bhutan Brunei Cambodia China Georgia India Indonesia Iran Iraq Israel Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Lebanon Malaysia Maldives Mongolia Myanmar Nepal North Korea Oman Palestine Philippines Qatar Saudi Arabia Singapore South Korea Sri Lanka Syria Taiwan Tajikistan Thailand Timor-Leste Turkey Turkmenistan United Arab Emirates Uzbekistan Vietnam Yemen