The Nine Lives of Pakistan: Dispatches from a Precarious State

by Declan Walsh

Overview

Winner of the 2021 Overseas Press Club of America Cornelius Ryan Award

The former New York Times Pakistan bureau chief paints an arresting, up-close portrait of a fractured country.

Declan Walsh is one of the New York Times’s most distinguished international correspondents. His electrifying portrait of Pakistan over a tumultuous decade captures the sweep of this strange, wondrous, and benighted country through the dramatic lives of nine fascinating individuals.

On assignment as the country careened between crises, Walsh traveled from the raucous port of Karachi to the salons of Lahore, and from Baluchistan to the mountains of Waziristan. He met a diverse cast of extraordinary Pakistanis—a chieftain readying for war at his desert fort, a retired spy skulking through the borderlands, and a crusading lawyer risking death for her beliefs, among others. Through these “nine lives” he describes a country on the brink—a place of creeping extremism and political chaos, but also personal bravery and dogged idealism that defy easy stereotypes.

Unbeknownst to Walsh, however, an intelligence agent was tracking him. Written in the aftermath of Walsh’s abrupt deportation, The Nine Lives of Pakistan concludes with an astonishing encounter with that agent, and his revelations about Pakistan’s powerful security state. Intimate and complex, attuned to the centrifugal forces of history, identity, and faith, The Nine Lives of Pakistan offers an unflinching account of life in a precarious, vital country.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781324020257
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	01/04/2022
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	374,778
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Declan Walsh, formerly the New York Times Pakistan bureau chief, is based in Cairo. He was educated in Dublin and has also reported from sub-Saharan Africa, Afghanistan, the United States, and across the Middle East.

Table of Contents

Prologue xiii

1 Insha' Allah Nation 1

Land of Broken Maps

2 Red Zone 23

The Reluctant Fundamentalist

3 The Prodigal Father 49

Jinnah's Pakistan

4 Arithmetic on the Frontier 75

A Pashtun Takes On the Taliban

5 'The Fabulous Senorita 105

A Human Rights Heroine Versus the Generals

6 The Good Muslim 137

A Millionaire's Crusade

7 Lost in Waziristan 163

A Veteran Spy Miscalculates

8 Minimum City 191

Faith in God and Clock

9 War of the Flea 219

Balochistan's Fifth Rebellion

10 Undesirable Activities 249

A Spy Comes Clean

11 A House on a Hill 271

Two Nations

Acknowledgements 293

Notes and Sources 301

Photo Credits 323

Index 325

Editorial Reviews

★ 09/21/2020

Journalist Walsh debuts with an immersive and splendidly written portrait of Pakistan based on the nine years he spent in the country reporting for the Guardian and the New York Times. He begins with his 2013 arrest and expulsion from the country for “undesirable activities” (Walsh later came to believe that his reporting on an insurgent movement in Balochistan province got him kicked out), then profiles nine people whose stories provide valuable perspective on Pakistan’s volatile politics and “endearing absurdities,” as well as its cultural traditions and modern aspirations. Walsh’s profile subjects include the “most famous cop in Karachi,” Chaudhry Aslam Khan, whose office “had the gleam of a mortuary and the furtive bustle of a mobster’s den,” and human rights activist Asma Jahangir, a “cast-iron idealist” who “embraced the untouchable and advocated the unthinkable, leading indefatigable campaigns to reform Pakistan’s bigoted laws or to protect its most vulnerable minorities.” Walsh also probes the history of ISI, Pakistan’s fearsome intelligence agency, and interviews one of its best known spies, Colonel Imam, who trained mujahideen fighters in the war against the Soviet Union in the 1980s and was kidnapped by the Taliban in 2010. Rich with incisive historical context, astute cultural analysis, and evocative language, Walsh’s account brings Pakistan’s contradictions to fascinating life. This masterfully reported account deserves a wide readership. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"[A] thrilling, big-hearted book....If Walsh’s guts take him places others have not reached, his prose – vigorous, cockeyed and clear – brings it home to the reader....This is not just a book for someone wanting to find out about Pakistan, although it performs that job admirably. It is also a richly observed study of how humans respond to the extraordinary pressures of a sometimes-choking society; empathetic, but hard-nosed and never veering into hagiography."

Telegraph - Memphis Barker

"A vivid, complex portrait of a country at a crossroads….Walsh’s writing is elegant and expressive. It does what the best foreign correspondence should: transport the reader."

Amna Nawaz

"Captivating.... Walsh is a wonderful writer, with a gift for sketching an impression of a place, time and ambience with a few brief lines. He knows how to interweave travelogue with an account of the relentless tensions that always threaten to burst through each vignette in the book. What also shines through is the relish with which Walsh throws himself into the far corners of Pakistan, into crowds, celebrations and rites, with a drive born of fascination with the land and its people."

Guardian - Julian Borger

"An enthralling account of Mr. Walsh’s near-decade as a correspondent."

Wall Street Journal - Tunku Varadarajan

"An irresistible combination of storytelling panache and in-depth knowledge; Declan Walsh brings vividly to life characters and situations that illuminate some of the most significant phases of Pakistan’s history."

Kamila Shamsie

"If you want to read one book about contemporary Pakistan, it has to be The Nine Lives of Pakistan, an intimate yet sweeping account of Pakistan’s contemporary history. Walsh is a rare foreign correspondent who doesn’t condescend, a storyteller who lets his characters speak. Although I am familiar with most of the events and characters Walsh writes about, his retelling left me breathless."

Mohammed Hanif

"Walsh is an engaging guide....Nine Lives of Pakistan is an unquestionably illuminating and engaging book…an elegantly crafted memoir of a gifted journalist."

Bilal Qureshi

"In The Nine Lives of Pakistan, Declan Walsh describes, with intellectual power and cool elegance, a much-misunderstood country. All those interested in South Asia and its complex politics and culture should read [this book]."

Pankaj Mishra

"A wonderful book which sets a new benchmark for non-fiction about the complex palace of mirrors that is Pakistan. Star New York Times foreign correspondent Declan Walsh has a rapier wit, a talent for skillfully sketched pen portraits and a sharp eye for tragedy, paradox and absurdity. With The Nine Lives of Pakistan he has produced a beautifully, lightly, fluently written book that is as profoundly nuanced as it is sharply perceptive."

William Dalrymple