Description
A fast-paced and revelatory journey through Karachi from an electrifying new voice in narrative non-fiction.
Karachi. The capital of Pakistan is a sprawling mega-city of 20 million people. It is a place of political turbulence in which those who have power wield it with brutal and partisan force, a place in which it pays to have friends in the right places and to avoid making deadly enemies. It is a place where lavish wealth and absolute poverty live side by side, and where the lines between idealism and corruption can quickly blur.
It takes an insider to know where is safe, who to trust and what makes Karachi tick, and in this powerful debut, Samira Shackle explores the city of her mother’s birth in the company of a handful of Karachiites. Among them is Safdar the ambulance driver, flinging himself into dangerous situations and keeping his ambulance spotlessly clean. There is Siraj the radical cartographer, mapping communities with the aim of proving to the government that they legally exist – and breaking the hold that the land and water mafias have on them. And there is Zille, the hardened journalist whose commitment to getting the best scoops puts him at increasing risk. As their individual experiences unfold, so Shackle tells the bigger story of Karachi over the past decade: a period in which the Taliban arrive in Pakistan, adding to the daily perils for its residents and pushing their city into the international spotlight.
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Rights Information
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Marketing Information
- An introduction to a stand-out new voice in non-fiction: a writer who is following in the footsteps of Fergal Keane and Lindsey Hilsum
- A young British writer with a talent for immersive, high octane storytelling
Author Biography
Samira Shackle is a freelance British journalist, writing mainly on politics, terrorism, and gender, with a particular focus on the Indian Subcontinent. She travels to Pakistan regularly where she has family and sent extensive time there working on the book. This is her debut.
Copyright Information
(C) Samira Shackle, 2021
Granta Books
Granta Books is one of the most independent-minded and prestigious literary publishers in the UK.
View all titlesBibliographic Information
- Publisher Granta Publications
- Publication Date February 2021
- Orginal LanguageEnglish
- ISBN/Identifier 9781783785391
- Publication Country or regionUnited Kingdom
- FormatHardback
- Primary Price 14.99 GBP
- Pages272
- ReadershipGeneral
- Publish StatusPublished
- Copyright Year2021
- Dimensions216 x 135 mm
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