Historical fiction books from Pakistan
Recommended historical fiction books (9)
Travel the world without leaving your chair.
If you are into historical fiction here are some historical fiction books from Pakistan for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge.
1.
A Season for Martyrs by Bina Shah EN
Description:
The U.S. literary debut of an up-and-coming Pakistani novelist and journalist. Ali Sikandar is assigned to cover the arrival of Benazir Bhutto, the opposition leader who has returned home to Karachi after eight years of exile to take part in the presidential race. Already eager to leave for college in the U.S. and marry his forbidden Hindu girlfriend, Ali loses a friend in a horrific explosion and finds himself swept up in events larger than his individual struggle for identity and love when he joins the People’s Resistance Movement, a group that opposes President Musharraf. Amidst deadly terr... continue
2.
Description:
An NYRB Classics Original Basti is a beautifully written reckoning with the tragic history of Pakistan. Basti means settlement, a common place, and Intizar Husain’s extraordinary novel begins with a mythic, even mystic, vision of harmony between old and young, man and woman, Muslim and Hindu. Then Zakir, the hero, wakes to the modern world. Crowds gather. Slogans echo. Cities burn. Whether hunkered down with family or furtively meeting to exchange news with friends in cafés, Zakir is alone in a country lost to the politics of loneliness.
3.
Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie EN
Description:
Winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award An Orange Prize Finalist Nagasaki, August 9, 1945. Hiroko Tanaka watches her lover from the veranda as he leaves. Sunlight streams across Urakami Valley, and then the world goes white. In the devastating aftermath of the atomic bomb, Hiroko leaves Japan in search of new beginnings. From Delhi, amid India's cry for independence from British colonial rule, to New York City in the immediate wake of 9/11, to the novel's astonishing climax in Afghanistan, a violent history casts its shadow the entire world over. Sweeping in its scope and mesmerizing in its ev... continue
4.
Description:
When young Iqbal is sold into slavery at a carpet factory, his arrival changes everything for the other overworked and abused chidren there. It is Iqbal who explains to them that despite their master's promises, he plans on keeping them as his slaves indefinetely. But it is also Iqbal who inspires the other children to look to a future free from toil...and is brave enough to show them how to get there. This moving fictionalized account of the real Iqbal Masih is told through the voice of Fatima, a young Pakistani girl whose life is changed by Iqbal's courage.
5.
Pinjar: The Skeleton and Other Stories by Amrita Pitam EN
Description:
"The skeleton ... [is] set against the background of religious and clan feuds on the eve of Partition ... That man is a compelling account of a young man born under strange circumstances and abandoned at the altar of God"--Page 4 of cover
6.
The Bad Muslim Discount by Syed M. Masood EN
Description:
Following two families from Pakistan and Iraq in the 1990s to San Francisco in 2016, The Bad Muslim Discount is an inclusive, comic novel about Muslim immigrants finding their way in modern America. “Masood’s novel presents a stereoscopic, three-dimensional view of contemporary Muslim America: the way historical conflict in the Middle East lingers in individual lives, the way gossip travels in a close-knit immigrant community.” —The New York Times Book Review It is 1995, and Anvar Faris is a restless, rebellious, and sharp-tongued boy doing his best to grow up in Karachi, Pakistan. As fundamen... continue
7.
The Crow Eaters by Bapsi Sidhwa EN
Description:
Faredoon (Freddie) Junglewalla Is Either The Jewel Of The Parsi Community Or A Murdering Scoundrel. Freddie S Mother-In-Law, Jerbanoo, Thinks He Is Planning To Do Away With Her, But Freddie Has Always Been A Pragmatist: If The Old Woman Were To Die (Be Murdered?) The Body Would Have To Be Placed On The Open-Roofed Towers Of Silence, In Keeping With Custom, And That Would Never Do. Insurance Fraud And Arson, However, Are Well Within Freddie s Repertoire-In Fact He Thinks He Has Invented The Idea, So Advanced Is It For India, In 1901. As His Skills Grow He Becomes A Man Of Consequence Among The ... continue
8.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid EN
Description:
Changez, a young Muslim American, is living the American dream, with a Princeton education and high-paying job, until the events of September 11th force him to confront his personal allegiances.
9.
Under the Tamarind Tree by Nigar Alam EN
Description:
A compellingly heartbreaking debut novel about the echoes of Partition and four friends whose dark secrets lead to a life-changing night that comes back to haunt them decades later. One night. Four friends. Countless secrets. 1964. Karachi, Pakistan. Rozeena is running out of time. She'll lose her home—her parents' safe haven since fleeing India and the terrors of Partition—if her medical career doesn't take off soon. But success may come with an unexpected price. Meanwhile the interwoven lives of her childhood best friends—Haaris, Aalya, and Zohair—seem to be unraveling with each passing day.... continue