The second wave

They arrived with their moody,melancholic prose offering remarkable insight into Pakistan. Their novels andshort stories went far beyond what daily newspaper reports tell about thestrife-torn country. Through characters trapped into making difficult choices,they not only explored what ails Pakistan and why sane individuals turnreluctant fundamentalists but also about its high society, the subtlemanipulations of its feudal life. Writers such as Mohsin Hamid (Moth Smoke, The Reluctant Fundamentalist), Mohammed Hanif (A Case of Exploding Mangoes, Our Lady of Alice Bhatti), Kamila Shamsie (Burnt Shadows), Daniyal Mueenuddin (Other Rooms, Other Wonders), Nadeem Aslam (Maps for Lost Lover) and H M Naqvi (Homeboy ) made the literary world sit up and take notice. But now a fresh crop of writers from the other side of the border is ready with their work. This year saw the release of Sheba Karim’s debut novel Skunk Girl, the story of a teenage Pakistani Muslim girl growing up in the US. Jabeen Akhtar’s Welcome to Americanistan hits the bookstores this month, while US-based medical student Haider Warraich’s debut novel Auras of the Jinn was released in August in India. “Pakistani writing isdefinitely the flavour of the year. Given the political context, the writing hasa newer urgency to it. It has become cutting edge, crisp and deeper,” saysNandita Agarwal, editorial head of Hachette. Which is why last year even Granta,the wellknown literary magazine, brought out a special issue on Pakistan.In a recent article in a UAE-based newspaper, historian and blogger MananAhmed spoke about how non-fiction books on Pakistan focus on the military andlittle else, making it a faceless place devoid of regular people doing everydaythings. The fiction segment seems to close that gap. Warraich’s novelfocuses on the life of a teenage boy growing up in Karachi.Seventy-eight-year-old debut writer Jamil Ahmad’s The Wandering Falcon isabout daily life in Balochistan. Maha Khan Philips (Beautiful From This Angle)gives her readers a peek into the plush lives of Karachi high society.There is an unmistakable surge of energy, with books eager to tellthe Pakistan story filling bookshelves. “Pakistan and the Pakistanidiaspora include almost 200 million people, and millions of them can write andread in English, so maybe what’s remarkable isn’t that there’sa burst of Pakistani writing in English but that it’s taken this long toarr ive, ” explains Mohsin Hamid in an email interview. Mosttop Pakistani writers have lived abroad at s o m e point. As the expatriatepopulation grows, so do s t o r i e s about desi-American or desi-Britishcrosscultural experiences. As seen with Indian-American books like TheInscrutable Americans, the trend has caught on with Pakistani volumes as well.To speak of recent books, Akhtar’s Welcome to Americanistan joinsKarim’s Skunk Girl in the genre. “I am not here to explain Pakistanor its policies to the world. I do not want that burden nor would I be qualifiedto take on that burden. What I can do is write about what it’s like togrow up in America with parents from Pakistan,” says Akhtar. AfterBush’s declaration of war on terror and Obama’s surgical strike intothe country, Pakistan is more prominent than ever before on the world map forthe average American. “In an awful way, 9/11 forced open an aperture incuriosity, around the world, to Pakistan. Literature is often turned to in suchtimes, and it’s a good thing we have such a talented and diverse array ofstorytellers to read right now,” says John Freeman, editor of the Grantaissue on Pakistan. The fear of being typecast by a Euro-centricnarrative is always very real. India has long battled with snake charmers,elephants and tigers. For Pakistan, it’s different, yet similar. In acontribution to Granta called ‘How to Write About Pakistan’, Hanif,Hamid, Shamsie and Mueenuddin compiled a list of dos and don’ts. Tonguefirmly in cheek, they advocated the use of mangoes, mango farms, maids servingmangoes and maintaining the ’trademark’ brand “The MostDangerous Place in the World”. Stories of and by Pakistanishave definitely found a readership in the US and the UK, but curiosity for it isno less in India. Granta’s Pakistan issue from last year, for example,sold five times as many copies as the magazine usually does in India.Ironically, the market for Pakistani writing in English is smallerin Pakistan. “The books are more expensive, and one has to do specialeditions imported from the US or the UK,” says V K Karthika of HarperCollins. Even as the stories coming from Pakistan retain theirpolish and shine, new Indian writers have now shifted focus to quick-readpaperbacks in English for the first-time reader. “Indian English writing is less than mediocre now. The Pakistanis are all sleek muscle and sinew, raring to race to the front,” says Brinda Bose, literary critic and professor of English at Delhi University. Looks like the storytellers across the border have a lot more to offer.