9 Must-Read Books by Pakistani Authors

A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammad Hanif

A Mohammad hanif classic considered to be one of the best novel written by a Pakistani author is a comic novel revolving surrounding the incident that killed General Zia ul Haq in the plane crash, A Case of Exploding Mangoes is a fictitious story of Ali Shigiri, a junior officer in Pakistan Air Force who is set to seek revenge for his father’s apparent suicide, which he blames on General Zia. The book won the Shakti Bhatt first book prize in 2008 and also grabbed a commonwealth book prize in best first book category.
Get it Here A Case of Exploding Mangoes

My Feudal Lord – Tehmeena Durrani

Tehmina Durrani’s My Feudal Lord is one of the biggest stirrers in Pakistan’s history. The book is an autobiography and revolves around Durrani’s life as the wife of Pakistan’s influential politician, former governor and Chief Minister Punjab Ghulam Mustafa Khar. The book was highly controversial and explored details of her marriage and unveiled how Khar mistreated her and how she had to run away barefoot to survive.
Get it Here My Feudal Lord: A Devastating Indictment of Women's Role in Muslim Society

Burnt Shadows – Kamila Shamsi

 Kamila Shamsi’s is one of versatile novalists not only in Pakistan but to me whole of asia .. Burnt Shadows traces the shared histories of two families, from the final days of the second world war in Japan, and India on the brink of partition in 1947, to Pakistan in the early 1980s, New York in the aftermath of 11 September and Afghanistan in the wake of the ensuing US bombing campaign. The book received the Anisfield-wolf award and was long listed for the prestigious Orange Prize for Fiction.
Get it Here Burnt Shadows: A Novel

Between Clay & Dust – Musharraf Ali Farooqi

Between Clay and Dust is about a wrestler and a tawaif, about two art forms that no longer hold the glory they once did. Set somewhere suggestive of post-partition Punjab, albeit in an area left ‘unscathed’ by ‘the ravaging winds of Partition’, the narrative is quiet, thoughtful and centered. Farooqi was among the five writers shortlisted for Asia’s most prestigious literary prize in 2012.
Get it Here 

Kartography by kamila shamsie

Kamila shamsie second entry in top 10 of this list but not surprisingly I had to put this one in this list. A love story with a family mystery at its heart, Kartography is a dazzling novel by a young writer of astonishing maturity and exhilarating style. Shamsie transports us to a world we have not often seen in fiction-vibrant, dangerous, sensuous Pakistan specially karachi. But even as she takes us far from the familiar, her story of passion and family secrets rings universally true.
Get it Here   

The Crow Eaters – Bapsi Sidhwa 

Set in the early 20^th century, The Crow Eater is an exuberant novel packed with witty humor. It describes the life of a Parsee family of Freddy Junglewalla who moves his family including a pregnant wife, baby daughter, and Jerbanoo, his stout mother-in-law from their ancestral forest home to cosmopolitan Lahore. He opens a store, and as his fortunes grow, so does the animosity between Freddy and his mother-in-law. While Freddy prospers under British rule, life with the domineering Jerbanoo is another matter entirely.
Get it Here 

Moth Smoke by mohsin hamid

8th on the list is Moshin Hamid’s debut novel moth smoke.  It portrays a contemporary Pakistan as far more vivid and disturbing than the exoticized images of South Asia familiar to most of the West. This debut novel establishes Mohsin Hamid as a writer of substance and imagination.
Get it Here 

Blasphemy by tehmina durrani 

In prose of great power and intensity, the author tells the tragic story of the beautiful Heer, brutalized and corrupted by Pir Sain, the man of God, whom she is married to when barely fifteen. But the nightmare she is locked into is not hers alone; it affects the entire clan that owes allegiance to the pir. In the Pir's haveli, unspeakable horrors are perpetrated every day and every night, all in the name of Allah. Sucked into the fetid hell of her lord's making, Heer loses her dignity, her freedom, even her humanity, till a terrible resolution gives her back to herself. 
Get it Here 

The Shadow of the Crescent Moon by Fatima Bhutto

Fatima Bhutto's stunning fiction debut begins and ends one rain swept Friday morning in Mir Ali, a small town in Pakistan's Tribal Areas close to the Afghan border. The Shadow of the Crescent Moon chronicles the lives of five young people trying to live and love in a world on fire. Individuals are pushed to make terrible choices. And, as the events of this single morning unfold, one woman is at the centre of it all.
Get it Here 

Read the book reviews here : Book Reviews 

The article originally appeared at Hothcpotch Post. It has been reproduced after taking permissions from Hotchpotch Post.