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The Nine Lives of Pakistan: Dispatches from a Precarious State
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67
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
68/100Critics
67/100Scholars
Author:
Declan Walsh
Publisher:
W. W. Norton Company
Date:
November 17, 2020
Declan Walsh is one of the New York Times's most distinguished international correspondents. His portrait of Pakistan over a tumultuous decade captures the sweep of this country through the dramatic lives of nine individuals.
What The Reviewers Say
The acclaimed correspondent captures a country torn apart by military aggression and religious extremism, and tries to work out why he was expelled.
The question has confounded many: How does Pakistan stay alive?.
Although Mr. Walsh acknowledges the big strategic questions, there isn’t a wonky paragraph in 300 pages. Instead he portrays Pakistan through the stories of nine emblematic people (the 'nine lives' of his title). A 10th life—Mr. Walsh’s own—is the thread that ties this cast together.
For the most part Walsh avoids the pitfalls [of the typical foreign correspondent], stitching together a variegated collage of an oft misunderstood country through in-depth profiles of nine Pakistanis. The common threads between this diverse lot are their contribution to the country’s shifting political tectonic plates and the fact that most died violent deaths. It is somewhat ironic how in the world’s fifth most populous country most of the lives the book traces were tragically cut short.
