Are there any new Pakistani authors on the scene? I am particularly interested in english writers like Bapsi Sidwa and Mohsin Hamid. If any one is reading a good book or know about any up and coming writers, do share with us!
Re: Pakistani Authors
My sister referred me "A Case of Exploding Mangoes" by Mohammad Hanif. I had requested it at the library but was unable to pick it up. It has really good reviews...
My sister referred me "A Case of Exploding Mangoes" by Mohammad Hanif. I had requested it at the library but was unable to pick it up. It has really good reviews...
The book started off really nicely. Some of the passages had me in stitches. But later on, it sort of dragged. The second half was cumbersome. If you'd lap up anything from a Pakistani author, like me, then sure give it a shot.
Are there any new Pakistani authors on the scene? I am particularly interested in english writers like Bapsi Sidwa and Mohsin Hamid. If any one is reading a good book or know about any up and coming writers, do share with us!
Speaking of MH, does he have anything coming out soon?
i bought a few books from pakistan but i can't recall the names justyet, wil let u know if i remember.
Re: Pakistani Authors
sheeda talli...author of "seekho urdu english vich"
jeera blade...author of "rano ke blue-rey nain"
chandu mian...author of "love ki pasooriyan"
Re: Pakistani Authors
Author: Kamila Shamsie - Books: Broken Verses ; Kartography
sheeda talli...author of "seekho urdu english vich" jeera blade...author of "rano ke blue-rey nain" chandu mian...author of "love ki pasooriyan"
:D
Havent you gone through** Meem Kaaf's** master blaster *Hua Ishq Channai kai Khait mai *
Speaking of MH, does he have anything coming out soon?
i bought a few books from pakistan but i can't recall the names justyet, wil let u know if i remember.
Sara, nothing from MH as of yet. I am still waiting on the Reluctant Fundamentalist movie though.
Do let me know about the books,when you get the chance.
The book started off really nicely. Some of the passages had me in stitches. But later on, it sort of dragged. The second half was cumbersome. If you'd lap up anything from a Pakistani author, like me, then sure give it a shot.
Thanks, guys. I'll check it out. Sounds like an interesting writer.
Thanks LC! According to the reviews on Amazon, they look pretty good.
Speaking of Amazon, do check out:
Mapmakers of Spitalfields
Amazon.com: The Mapmakers of Spitalfields: Syed Manzurul Islam: Books
Even though the writer is Bangladeshi, he writes pretty well about the Bangladeshi immigrant experience in the UK. Besides we were one country at one time, so hopefully you guys will check it out.
Re: Pakistani Authors
Uzma Aslam Khan: Tresspassing; Geometry of God - highly acclaimed in certain circles
Plus, there is a collection of short stories by Pakistani female authors " And the world changed". Just released by feminist press....
Re: Pakistani Authors
from the Hindu’s Literary Review The Hindu : Literary Review / Interview : Collective perspectives
**Multi-layered responses: Uzma Aslam Khan’s writing is a reaction to her environment. **
She defies all preconceived notions of author: no unkempt looks, no long pauses. And an easy affability that is almost beguiling. Unusual for an author, Uzma Aslam Khan maintains her blog with consistency and candour. She even has warm pictures of herself crossing a bridge that is at best precarious! She is almost too intrepid for a writer! Then she writes at a pace that allows her to soak in things all around: some of which in turn find their way into her writing!
Born in Lahore and grew up in Karachi, earlier this year she penned The Geometry of God. Her earlier novel, **Trespassing, **was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize Eurasia Region and translated into 13 languages. A regular contributor to journals across the world, she fields questions regarding her writing, the emergence of Pakistani writers, and her response to emerging challenges.
Your writing has a rare mix of sensuality and contemporary socio-political. How do you arrive at this matrix?
It’s not a science; I never know where I’m going with a story till I sink in it, and yes, the process of sinking is a very sensual one.
Do you see yourself as a socio-political realist who talks of specific human relationships against the wider contemporary global canvas?
I see myself as a novelist. My work is a response to my environment, and that response is multilayered. I grew up under General Zia-ul Haq. That was my transition from childhood to adulthood. I studied at an English medium convent and, during Independence Day ‘festivities’, I remember marching between an icon of Jesus and Mary, which I associated with our colonial past; and the Islamic flag, which I associated with our military present. And I’d wonder if anybody understood how any of it happened. I’m still wondering how it happened. I doubt I’ve ever been able to stop marching between the two icons of imperialism and militarism.
What I understand now is that the hunger to know my place in these chaotic layers helped make me a writer. It’s the hunger to make up for what was never said. Does this make me a realist? I hope not, because that sounds so dull. Human relationships? Absolutely. They confound me every day so I keep writing about them.
Pakistani writers are arriving on the global stage, winning new acclaim. How do you look at the phenomenon?
It’s a relief. It’s a worry. A relief because Pakistan has a lot of creative talent, for which it has seldom won much international recognition. My concern is two-fold. First, those currently enjoying acclaim are mostly from the Diaspora. My second concern is that the three Pakistani or Pakistani-British writers of my generation to receive the most acclaim in recent years are all men: Mohsin Hamid, Nadeem Aslam, and Mohammad Hanif.
For male writers of Muslim origin, the parameters aren’t as rigid as women. Yes, some are weaving stories around bearded mullahs, but hardly all. In contrast, the list of known Muslim women writers who aren’t writing about browbeaten housewives and burqa-clad girls is tiny. The West wants only that image, little else. Only two women writers of Muslim origin have been shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and both live in the U.K.! Coincidence or pattern? I hope it’s a coincidence. But you know, forgive me if I’m making an obvious oversight, but how many internationally known Indian women writers are Muslim?
Interestingly, even as we notice the better recognition for Pakistani writers internationally, most of them are based in the West. And they don’t often talk of the country of their residence. Do you see it as deliberate or just a writer’s great familiarity?
Living along the colonial meridian of the North Atlantic has become part of the ‘job description’. The logic goes something like this: “If you live, say, in Pakistan, and develop your work independently of our approval and taste, you can’t possibly be any good!” In the post 9/11 world, the colonial legacy has only gotten stronger. I know of many South Asian writers who’ve come under tremendous pressure to edit their work in a manner that, I believe, squeezes the narrative into a familiar western mould. Currently what we’re seeing is, at best, what Gandhi wanted in the 1920s: Dominion Status. We are nowhere near what Subhas Chandra Bose wanted: Complete Independence. I wonder how many writers of South Asian origin even desire Complete Independence.
One constant in your work has been your ability to talk of human intimacy without losing sight of the larger plot. However, does not the frankness in depiction of sexuality detract from the larger merit of your work?
Oh, I hope not. Since when is sexual frankness a detraction? All three books have frank sex scenes, told from the points of view of both men and women. Some people have gotten offended and even belligerent. Others have enjoyed those scenes.
You had once described yourself as a caterpillar writer, linking threads. Can you elaborate?
I think I’ll switch to a metaphor better suited to my newest book, The Geometry of God and speak not of threads but of angles. The book has many parts that work (or should work) together as a whole, its three main characters each have a distinct voice and point of view. Many writers, when they sit down to write, ask: what happens and whose story is it? Since none of my books has ever had a central character, for me the questions that drive the narrative are: who’s looking at what happens, who isn’t, and what are the differences in their ways of seeing? What fascinates me is how individual perspective shapes collective perspective, how the same events seen from different eyes are interpreted differently, sometimes even, over time, by the same pair of eyes, because memory has a way of reshaping events. It’s in this reshaping that the structure or geometry of my current novel emerged. Writing for me is almost a three-dimensional, physical act. I have to be able to see the structure I’m building the way I would expect to see a sculpture or a building: from many different angles. That is the only way I can hope to bring all the facets together.
Re: Pakistani Authors
I am an up and coming new pakistani writer. Waaatch this espace.
Re: Pakistani Authors
abstract thinking of ethical writing, fiction or non fiction, is essential, so that the readers can relate to the content and the context.
a HUGE responsibility is upon the shoulders of the writers, when the create and narrate some story line, some plot or a theme for a novel or an article.
the clarity in diction, the socio-cultural contextual meanings and referrents etc., all have to be non hyper bolic.
only then, they can appeal to the minds of healthy curiosity driven readers of all ages and interests.
but, if writing is unethical and if it crafted to mislead people to unethical visages of thoughts, then the writer is a wrong-doer.
social and cultural, personal and contemporary age related issues and concerns can be addressed in effective writing of all genres.
a literate nation or society, who otherwise may not all have degrees and graduate education, will hugely benefit from reading good works by well-trained writers whose writings are purposeful.
the aim of any written word, should ideally be education and inspiration for a better sequence of thoughts and actions - behaviors which bring our the best in the intellectual zest of a person's or a group of peoples' social and personal lives.
if that is not accomplished, by writing of any kind, then basically it is not writing that can be rated positive and meaningful, ethical and or conscientious.
much to the amazement of good writers and their circle, when bad writers and their writing holds sway, the only option left for good writers is to write for themselves and only offer it or share it to those people, who can value good writing.
Re: Pakistani Authors
i read mothsmoke by mohsin hamid a few years ago and i remember that i liked it. kartography by kamila shamsie was a good book also..as well as salt and saffron.
if you're willing to read a book a by an indian author - check out 'a fine balance' by rohinton mistry. you won't regret that you read it. :)
I also read Moth Smoke by Mohsin Ahmed and liked it. I've read Blasphemy by Tahmina Durrani and enjoyed reading it; pretty scandalous book that is supposedly based on a true story.
I've read books by Bapsi Sidhwa.
Don't know of any other Pakistani authors. But I'm a Pakistani and aspire to be an author one day, InshaAllah. It's been a fantasy of mine for quite some time.
As far as desi authors are concerned, I've read several books written by Indian authors that I've enjoyed.
Interpretor of Maladies/ Jhumpa Lahiri
Serving Crazy with Curry/ Amulya Malladi
The Mango Season/Amulya Malladi
Song of the Cuckoo Bird/ Amulya Malladi
Sister of My Heart/ Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
The Unknown Errors of Our Lives/ Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Koyal Dark, Mango Sweet/ Kashmira Sheth
The book started off really nicely. Some of the passages had me in stitches. But later on, it sort of dragged. The second half was cumbersome. If you'd lap up anything from a Pakistani author, like me, then sure give it a shot.
Oh ok, thanks for your review... do you have any recommendations? :)
sheeda talli...author of "seekho urdu english vich" jeera blade...author of "rano ke blue-rey nain" chandu mian...author of "love ki pasooriyan"
<Great knowledge.
I also read Moth Smoke by Mohsin Ahmed and liked it. I've read Blasphemy by Tahmina Durrani and enjoyed reading it; pretty scandalous book that is supposedly based on a true story.
I've read books by Bapsi Sidhwa.
Don't know of any other Pakistani authors. But I'm a Pakistani and aspire to be an author one day, InshaAllah. It's been a fantasy of mine for quite some time.
As far as desi authors are concerned, I've read several books written by Indian authors that I've enjoyed.
Interpretor of Maladies/ Jhumpa Lahiri Serving Crazy with Curry/ Amulya Malladi The Mango Season/Amulya Malladi Song of the Cuckoo Bird/ Amulya Malladi Sister of My Heart/ Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni The Unknown Errors of Our Lives/ Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni Koyal Dark, Mango Sweet/ Kashmira Sheth
I picked up a few books in Pakistan, the most horrible book/author I ever had the (dis)pleasure of reading was Nisha Minhas. bahhh!
Color of Mehndi--Nausheen Pasha zaidi.. amazing story
Shahnaz-- by Hiro Boga.. slow moving but worth a read nonetheless