The Nine Lives of Pakistan: Dispatches from a Precarious State

by Declan Walsh

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. 14 illustrations

Genres: Nonfiction, Pakistan, History, Politics, Travel, Journalism, Asia

368 pages, Paperback

First published September 29, 2020

About the author

Declan Walsh is an Irish journalist who is currently (January 2021) Chief Africa Correspondent for The New York Times based in Nairobi, Kenya. He was previously bureau chief for The New York Times in Cairo, Egypt, from which position he covered the entire Middle East. He spent five months reporting on the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, prior to which he was The New York Times bureau chief in Pakistan from 2011 until he was expelled in May 2013 for what the Pakistani authorities characterised as “undesirable activities”.

Mr. Walsh was born and raised in Ireland, and started his career at The Sunday Business Post in Dublin before moving to Nairobi, Kenya in 1999 to cover sub-Saharan Africa as a freelance reporter. He moved to Islamabad, Pakistan in 2004 to cover Pakistan & Afghanistan for The Guardian. He then joined The New York Times as Pakistan bureau chief in 2011.

Reviews

[Mikey B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gives us an excellent introduction to Pakistan. It is a land of vast contradictions and polarizations. There are a multitude of anomalies within and what is presented to the outside world. It is also a violent world.

Page 77 (my book) in the Frontier provinces

We splashed through ponds of mud, weaved between stands of palm trees and stopped at high-walled compounds where weatherworn men gathered to listen earnestly. I didn’t see a single woman. Guns, on the other hand were everywhere – Soviet-design Kalashnikovs, old British Lee-Enfield rifles and Chinese pistols…

Page 126

After the schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman on a school bus in Swat Valley in 2012, she was hailed across the globe as an anti-extremism heroine, and later admitted to Oxford University and awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. At home, she became a pariah, attacked by conspiracy theorists who derided her as a CIA agent who orchestrated the shooting for personal gain. A chain of schools refused to handle Malala’s best-selling book; she was even shunned by some fellow pupils in Mingora, her hometown in Swat. A familiar impulse lay behind the accusations: that, in being lauded by the West, this girl was bringing shame on Pakistan.

Through the author we meet a variety of subjects. A woman fighting gender inequality. A police chief in Karachi who was eventually gunned down. We are also provided with a history of Pakistan – its inception in 1947 and its founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah. His vision of Pakistan has been usurped and his history over-written.

The author takes us to Balochistan where we meet separatist fighters. This reporting prompted the author to be ejected from Pakistan by the ISI (Pakistan’s version of the CIA – and a law unto itself)

Page 238

In the outside world, few people noticed. Officials in Washington and London, concerned with defeating the Taliban or chasing al Qaeda fugitives, viewed the war in Balochistan as an obscure sideshow in Pakistan’s multi-ringed circus of violence.

He also writes on the tribal codes of honor – more so of a woman’s honor – meaning her sexuality. This is pervasive across Pakistan. There is a dismal record of education and public schooling which affects women even more.

The support of the ISI for the Afghan Taliban allowed it not only to spread to the Frontier areas bordering Afghanistan but to its cities like Karachi where Taliban groups are present. Madrassas supported by Saudi Arabia are numerous and teach a fundamentalist version of Islam. There was the horrific seizure at the Red Mosque in 2007.

Most of the essays in this book are based on events from 2002 to 2012. At that time the author lived and travelled throughout Pakistan. We come away from this excellent reportage with a view of a turbulent nation.

[8stitches 9lives · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

Painting a vivid portrait of a country that has long been in flux, Walsh provides us with a narrative that is rich with nuanced storytelling as well as in-depth information about contemporary Pakistan and its complex social and political situation. With a razor-sharp eye and propensity for detail, this is the definitive guide to the much-misunderstood country. An exhaustive and fascinating account and one that is eminently readable. Many thanks to Bloomsbury for an ARC.

[Tariq Mahmood · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very average book, written in the same template as Declan's earlier books on Pakistan. The Military, politicians, and the Mullah's. So if you have read any one of his earlier books, there is little point in buying this one. The real story would be the inside story of how politics really works inside the Pakistan Army. What is required to become an all-powerful general, their internal squabbles, their priorities, their social circles, their business deals, their corruptions, their reputations etc.

[Raghu Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sociologists and journalists have always made prophecies about the future of various countries. When the Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s health was failing in the 1960s, political journalists started asking ‘After Nehru, Who?’. Many friends of India believed Indian democracy may not survive Nehru. Others worried about India’s disintegration or a collapse under the weight of its own population. We know now these fears didn’t come true. In the past two decades, I have read prophecies about the Chinese economy imploding because of its massive debt burden. So far it hasn’t happened. Perhaps China’s economy may never implode but only experience periodic pangs of economic and political shocks. Like most countries, it might trundle on. Pakistan is another country about which pundits have forecast doom since the 1990s. Some have called it a failed state. Others have worried about its nuclear bombs and enriched Uranium falling into the hands of jihadis. Yet others have thought about the state and army turning theocratic and fundamentalist. Pakistan has struggled since the 1980s but has remained a partial democracy with the line of control blurred between the Army, the ISI, the clerics and the elected government. Declan Walsh, the author of this book, spent ten years reporting from Pakistan for the Guardian and the New York Times. He captures Pakistan between 2004 and 2013 through the lives and fate of nine consequential people. Despite the title, Walsh does not look at the crystal ball regarding Pakistan’s future. He leaves it to the reader to make her own conclusions about the country’s future.

I found it curious that all the nine lives deal with people of privilege, affluence and power. I wished there were some ‘Aam aadmi’ (commoner) amongst them to give a fuller picture of Pakistan. The author covers the lives through their political careers in Pakistan. He reports on the military action in the Red Mosque, the army offensive on the Taliban in Swat valley, and the murder of the Punjab governor, Salman Taseer. Other ones are the struggles of Ms. Asma Jehangir, Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, and the Baluchistan uprising under Akbar Bugti and his killing. Those interested in Pakistan in recent decades would be familiar with these events. Walsh covers the history of Pakistan’s birth in some detail and Mohd. Ali Jinnah’s role in it. He attempts to visit the mansion Jinnah owned on the Malabar Hill in Mumbai without success. I found two chapters which showcase Walsh as an investigative journalist. One focuses on the ISI operative ‘Colonel Imam’ (Sultan Amir Tarar) and his eventual execution by the Taliban. I had read about Col. Imam in Carlotta Gall’s book. Walsh probes deeper into Imam’s work for the ISI in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The penultimate chapter is about an exiled Baloch activist who gives Walsh a tantalizing piece of information. He shows Walsh an image on Google Maps of a strange-looking facility in the remote Kirthar mountains in central Baluchistan. It looked like a James Bond-style den to Walsh and he forwards the co-ordinates of this complex to the experts at the Institute for Science and International Security. A few years later, they released their findings that the complex appeared to be a hardened, secure underground facility to store parts of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.

Walsh is fond of the Pakistani people, though he finds the nation a riddle. The book gives one the sense that Pakistan’s recent history since 1970 has been turbulent. We get the image of a nation fraught with fraudulent elections, and repeated assassinations of high-profile political, religious and ethnic leaders. The military and the Intelligence dominate the nation’s life in most arenas. It loves and hates the US and is engaged in never-ending skirmishes with its western and eastern neighbor. Nor is it tranquil at home because religion tries to emerge dominant in society. The narrative does not endear Pakistan to the reader. For me, the best parts of the book are the author’s perceptive assessment of many of Pakistan’s political and religious leaders, its cultural contradictions, and its identity issues. His prose in writing about these facets is beautiful, expressive and discerning. For example, he describes the Bhutto family as part Greek tragedy and part ‘The Godfather’, a sweeping story of hope, hubris and tragedy. On Pakistan’s creation, he says the country was a lumpy stew of tribes, tongues and cultures with most of its borders contested. He calls Hamid Mir, the much-vaunted TV journalist, a thin-skinned garrulous man who ran his studio like a ringmaster.

Walsh shows his consummate observational skills in eloquent words while describing cities in Pakistan. He says if the cities were caricatures, Lahore is corpulent and languid, twirling its moustache over a greasy breakfast. Islamabad cuts a clipped figure, holding court in a gilded drawing room, proffering Scotch and political whispers. Peshawar wears a turban or a burka, scuttling among the stalls of an ancient bazaar. Karachi is harder to sketch because it has too many faces. It is the shiny-shod businessman, the hardscrabble laborer and the slinky young socialite bending over a line of cocaine!

Karachi receives special attention from him. He says shootings, bombings, strikes and floods plague the city. Once they pass, Karachi snaps back into shape. Shops, schools, beauty salons, etc re-open for business. Resilience is an integral part of Karachi’s makeup and its residents are proud of it. But Walsh says it is nothing to be proud of. Karachiites are making a virtue of necessity. It helps them to gloss over the realities of their chaotic, cruel city where nobody, not even the police, is in charge. Talking of police, Walsh says hundreds of people get killed every year by extrajudicial police violence in empty alleys and the city’s lonely fringes. Politicians, army generals and criminals use the police to their own ends. A good cop in Karachi knows when to take money and when to give it. He knows when to break the law and when to enforce it. They are the grease of the city machine, lubricating its cogs of mess and infernal corruption.

Walsh says all religious restrictions apply only to the ordinary, poor folk. The rich do as they please. They lavish booze parties with cocaine inside high walls. New Year Eve parties see women in slinky dresses weaving between the tables. Inebriated males trade blows on dance floors. At other times, parties sport showgirls flown in from Eastern Europe kicking heels on stage. The poor have their revenge too. They puff on their joints and fire victorious shots from their guns and celebrate by smoking dope in Sufi shrines.

Two issues related to India interested me in the book. Indian intelligence has insisted for decades that its notorious gangster and terrorist, Dawood Ibrahim, lives in Karachi, protected by the Pakistani Army. Pakistan has always denied it. In return, Pakistan has always accused India of meddling in the unrest in Baluchistan and fanning the flames. India has denied it. Walsh says Dawood Ibrahim lived in low profile under ISI protection in a mansion behind the popular Abdullah Shah Ghazi Sufi shrine in Karachi. On Baluchistan, Walsh says India was indeed stirring the pot, funneling money to separatists as payback for Pakistan’s support to jihadis in Kashmir. It was an open secret that RAW handed over bags of dosh to the Baloch. Later, they sent money via bank accounts in Dubai. However, Walsh concludes that entrenched historical and political grievances, not Indian cash, are driving the fight in Baluchistan.

Towards the end, the author laments like liberals in both India and Pakistan do. It runs as follows: “India and Pakistan have so much in common, like Bollywood movies, cricket, language, etc. The two people gravitate toward one another in peace-keeping missions or otherwise overseas. Countless Pakistanis yearn for peace with India, a country they love albeit in secret.” But we know these are cliches. Peace is unlikely to materialize because of them. Indians think the Pakistani Deep State would not allow it. The Pakistani Deep State feels India cannot expect peace unless it gives them the Kashmir Valley. Still, I thought the author has an insightful observation on Pakistan’s identity crisis. Analysts have called Pakistan a state with a confused identity. Walsh says that the trauma of partition based on faith caused the pathological confusion in identity. Islam offered only an incomplete identity. The negation of India filled the void thus created. Perhaps, this insecurity pushes Pakistan to coddle jihadis and scheme in Afghanistan. Because Pakistan had to be everything India was and was not!

The book is fast-paced and the story-telling is superb. I sure loved reading the book.

[Kevin Miller · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a collection of outdated reporting on major Pakistani politicians. In chapter one, there is scene where Walsh is in the home of a business man where he says that he learned about the "real Pakistan" from regular citizens, not politicians. He says this, paradoxically, while interviewing an incredibly wealthy, well connected man who is bagging up cocaine. The book goes on to profile Benazir Bhutto, Imran Khan, and Muhammed Jinnah. In other words, not a single regular Pakistani. There is a chapter on Karachi where he briefly talks with some millennial tech entrepreneurs, who are very much not "regular" or mainstream Pakistanis, yet are the only subjects of the book who are not major political figures or incredibly wealthy. In addition, all these profiles are at least 10 years old and many of the subjects are dead or have expatriated by now.

In addition to the top-down reporting, there is the standard western bullshit of alcohol=non-traditional and modern. Not to push any Irish stereotypes here, but Walsh is obsessed with alcohol. The incredibly cliché central thesis of the book, that "in conclusion, Pakistan is a land of contrasts," is basically predicated on the fact that there is Islamic extremism but also, look, booze! A deeply stupid premise to anyone who has spent time in (and drank heavily in...) a Muslim country. I was severely disappointed by this book and am still looking forward to a book about Pakistan that is not focused on extremism or "hey, did you know the ISI guys who fund the Taliban like to drink Jonny Walker? Crazy huh!?"

[Sabahat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found the book quite insufferable, initially. Was alternating between the hard copy and the audiobook, and the audiobook was particularly torturous. Awful, awful job by the white narrator on so many fronts, but I feel less his fault and much more the company’s. In any case, some of the chapters in the latter half of the book more than made up for the orientalism of the earlier half and the profiling of a very predictable who’s who of Pakistan. Despite that, Colonel Imam was new to me, even as the mention of Shakir Husain, Faiza S Khan and the like felt like reading gossip about Pakistan’s very familiar twitterati. I have always found journalism to be a sort of inferior profession, but it’s accounts like these, especially descriptions and stories of parts of Pakistan I have never had access to, that remind you of the importance of this kind of work.

[Ali Yasir · Rating 4 out of 5]

Usually, writers write about events which affect, or change the social febric of any country. Declan Walsh took to the personalities which affected certain important events in the history of Pakistan. Some of these events, in literal words, changed the course of Pakistan's direction. Nine people are actually nine different schools of thought. Recommended!!

My youtube link of this book's review:
https://youtu.be/uoS4zl1wZbU

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Irish journalist Declan Walsh covered Pakistan for the Guardian and the New York Times until he was shown the door by the Pakistani intelligence/security agency ISI for his too-close to the bone writing about the unrest in Balochistan in 2013. This book is a collection of articles about the various challenges faced by contemporary Pakistan: the aforementioned revolt, the increasing challenge of radical Islam, crime, corruption and political instability, to say nothing of an over-bearing and all-powerful military. Walsh writes with sympathy and a sense of wonder, showing his love for this troubled and beautiful country. A good read, especially if South Asian affairs is an interest of yours.

[Jifu · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Note: I received an advanced reader copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley)

Declan Walsh compresses his several years' of living and reporting in Pakistan into an excellently exhaustive, in-depth and up-to-date look into a nation long-suffering from a perpetual identity crisis along numerous internal fault lines, yet still continues to carry on with an almost impossible resilience.

[Umesh Kesavan · Rating 3 out of 5]

In 1983, Tariq Ali memorably asked, "Can Pakistan Survive?" in the title of his book. Since then, many writers, local and foreign, have grappled with the fact that Pakistan has, somehow, survived. Declan Walsh, a journalist who spent many years in Pakistan, is the latest. He tells the tale of Pakistan by profiling nine people who encapsulate the country's contradictions. It is telling that many of those nine met a violent death. The author mixes daring reportage with history : For example, in a chapter on a Pashtun chieftain, the author introduces the subject playing around with guns, gives an overview of Pashtun history and then jumps right back to the subject playing a life-or-death battle in the tribal hinterlands. That the author survived these challenging assignments itself is an achievement, writing such an engaging book is a blood-soaked cherry on the cake.

[Shakir Husain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Had a hard time putting this down. Declan spent 10 years in Pakistan and it shows in the depth of his understanding of Pakistan, it's problems, and it's people. Reads like a thriller and the profiles are brilliantly done. Highly recommnded.

[Muhammad Asif · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review originally appeared in Youlin Magazine: https://www.youlinmagazine.com/articl...

“Above all, Pakistanis are survivors. Yet a country, like a person, may only have nine lives. Rather than fate to overtake them, some of the people I met in the Insha’Allah nation took matters into their own hands…”

This sets the tone for Nine Lives of Pakistan, a book teaming with tales of survival from Pakistan, of people taking matters into their own hands while countering fate or falling prey to it all the time. Declan Walsh, a well-reputed journalist of The New York Times who had spent about a decade reporting on Pakistan, uses this book to contemplate his unceremonious expulsion from the country. Tracing through his personal tribulations, he narrates the story of a country that is too complex even for itself to understand. Divided in various chapters catering to a specific facet of the nation, it’s only natural that the product comes out to be like the country itself: interesting, overwhelming, promising, flamboyant and utterly frustrating. Walsh lives through it all and tells as things are.

Western commentary on Pakistan is often lopsided, for it’s too easy to write op-ed pieces on the country and provide a 500-word solution for its various problems. Walsh’s greatest achievement is bringing to the fore all the dimensions of a very complicated place. Hope can be found in adversity, feminist icons are born in a system of patriarchy, ideas of liberalism are nurtured in remote places. Notions of belonging often take unfortunate turns, and people still take on sensitive issues, even at the cost of their lives.

Does it always make sense? No. And this is just as fitting. The comparisons between this book and Anatol Lieven’s “Pakistan: A Hard Country”, are somewhat justified. Both feature very insightful work on the country, even though the writing styles are immensely different.
Walsh engages the country with all its drama, using his insights to try to explain this complex and contradictory society. He uses personal experiences and interviews, academic articles and journalistic reporting on Pakistan, sources and hearsay. Walsh makes adept use of all the sources available on the country to spin a tale that holds one’s attention. It reads like a thriller at times, and a tragic drama at others.

If Pakistan is a misunderstood country, Walsh doesn’t tell the readers how to understand it. He also doesn’t contend with greater, loftier questions on the future of the country. He just takes a back seat, and lets his characters drive the story. And the characters are all familiar. The book isn’t an eye-opener for anyone who has been following the developments in Pakistan and the region. But the intricate details brought forward lend a different color to everything we know.

Often the chapters focus on a central figure, and the scope eventually zooms out to bring in the bigger picture and Walsh’s own interpretation of it. In “Insha’Allah Nation”, Walsh sheds light on the history of the country, replete with accounts of its political figures and their various dilemmas. In “Red Zone”, he gives a personal account of the notorious Lal Masjid episode. The idea of Pakistan, and what the founder envisioned it to be, is talked about in depth in “The Prodigal Father”. If “Arithmetic On the Frontier”, talks about the war torn swathes of North Western Pakistan, “The Fabulous Señorita”, takes readers to the activism scene in the country, spearheaded by Asma Jehangir. Accordingly, Salman Taseer, Colonel Imam, Chaudhary Aslam Khan and Nawab Akbar Bugti are the main characters in “The Good Muslim”, “Lost in Waziristan”, “Minimum City” and “War of the Flea”. “Undesirable Activities” is where the writer gets the semblance of a closure of his tenure in Pakistan, while “A House on a Hill” makes metaphorical use of Jinnah’s South Court on Malabar Hill to talk about the country’s foreign relations.

Captivating, vivid and enthralling, Declan Walsh’s book adds considerably to the collection of non-fiction books on Pakistan. It transports the readers to far flung places in the heart of the country, and to timelines that underscore very contemporary problems. Despite the country closing its doors for Walsh, he admits one third of the guests at his wedding ceremony were Pakistanis. So maybe, the hope for his return is not lost.

For the characters of his book, however, things aren’t always celebratory. Even if hope sustains, many of the characters Walsh has written about were killed in terrorist attacks, and some of the other individuals he mentions have left the country. But then, all the characters are human, with all their follies and failings, struggling against the odds and shaping a peculiar portrait of this country. This sums up nicely in the Faiz Ahmad Faiz verse that Walsh uses to start his book, “Who is without sin in the city of my beloved?”.

[Paras Kapadia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've grown weary of western voices on south Asian topics, but this book shows up really well - nuanced, curious and holding back judgement for the most part. This book is a crash course on our neighbors, covering solid ground across provinces, people and politics. No country is perfect, and this book highlights some key inflection points that shaped the nation. No cricket or Kashmir if that's what you're looking for.

[Rainer F · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you think, you should know more about Pakistan, one of the world's fastest growing countries in terms of population, its history and conflicts and its relationship to India, you should definitely read this book that Declan Walsh has written over the course of ten years.
Being expelled from Pakistan by the secret service ISI in 2013, he has spent almost a decade. In "Nine Lives", he portrays nine people whose lives show different directions and varities. Five of them died due to murder.

[Claire Baxter · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up. I found it hard to get into at first - the way it jumped around in time and I wasn't always sure what the overarching theme was. Once I got used to the writing I got into the flow of it a bit more and enjoyed the second half a lot more.

[darthazius · Rating 4 out of 5]

More intimate than comprehensive, this book covers some of the country's notable breaking stories from the viewpoint of the people in the middle of them. I found it enjoyable, well-written, humorous, infuriating, depressing, but ultimately informative.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

More a history lesson than a book on the current state of Pakistan since the author was expelled in 2013. A bit clichéd at times but overall I enjoyed learning about different regions and influential people around Pakistan. Definitely worth a read of you have an interest in Pakistan but aren't terribly familiar with the politics.

[shar · Rating 5 out of 5]

normally I am hesitant on foreign correspondents and their comprehension of the complicated and often contradictory nature of Pakistan but Walsh describes it with the same colour, gusto and somber realities I myself think of every time I visit + a touch on some of the most influential people in it's history.

[Faaiz · Rating 3 out of 5]

A memoir based on the author's work as a journalist (The Guardian, then The New York Times) for nearly a decade in Pakistan constructed loosely based on the lives of nine individuals from various ranks of the elite, eight of whom are now deceased.

The author was unceremoniously expelled from Pakistan in 2013 for "undesirable activities" and that is the premise on which he starts this book, to understand the conundrum that led to his expulsion. Of course, as you read through these accounts, it becomes pretty clear that it's not a matter of whether "undesirable activities" occurred but rather which activity was the straw that broke the camel's back.

I generally avoid reading journalistic accounts of Pakistan, especially from Western writers, not because of the threat of any Orientalism necessarily, but because I am often underwhelmed by their surface level analysis and focus on the same regurgitated Politician-Mullah-Military nexus.

The strength of this book comes from Walsh's extensive and immersive experience in Pakistan. While of course sticking to his elite base in Pakistan, he does seem to have seen, experienced, and engaged Pakistanis from different walks of life, as much as a Western journalist can it seems. Pakistani readers may find it amusing how the book seems peppered with generic aphorisms one might hear in the streets. For example (emphasis mine)

Despite its harsh Islamic laws, every neighbourhood had a semi-official bootlegger, which made it as easy to order a bottle of whisky as a pizza. (The whisky usually arrived more quickly.)

The author has shrewd observations about the festering wounds of partition, the specter of India that hangs as a cudgel over the heads of progressive forces, the use of nostalgia and denial as opiates for the ruling class to retreat back to the treacherous notion of the "good old days", and perhaps the most salient and enduring confusion regarding its identity, and of course the contradictions from the interpersonal micro level among its people's day to day cognition and behavior to that of the state and policy level.

Also interesting were the essentialist tropes regarding the East and the West, regarding Muslims, and Pashtuns both imposed then by the Colonial rulers and the British army generals and now self-anointed by some leaders among the Pashtuns and Baloch, and among the fundamentalist Muslims. Another crutch for keeping divisions alive and for keeping the flame of exceptionalism alive in the face of adversity and crisis.

Reading a book on Pakistan is almost always a frustrating experience, from looking at the atrocities committed at the time of partition to the squandering of opportunities as a once promising nation (and not just because it had a GDP growth rate mirroring Singapore's and had consumer commodities, like Walsh is eager to point out) to the thwarting of a coherent and liberatory identity rooted in multiculturalism and universalism for the divisive and chauvinistic notion of Islam and negation of India, and more. Pakistan continues on being variously termed "a hard country", "precarious state", "on the brink", "paradox" etc. Despite all this, it prevails, but a key question you'd be left asking is at what, and whose, cost?

[Moran · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Nine Lives of Pakistan is a ten-year journalistic effort by reporter Declan Walsh. The chapters in the book often recap the lives of prominent individuals from Pakistan’s history. Through their individual stories, the broader history of Pakistan is told.

For someone who has never really delved into Pakistani history, this book is a good primer. And Walsh is a good narrator, never over-assuming the reader’s familiarity with persons and places in Pakistan. Even for recurring characters in the book he would often include a short descriptor to refresh the memory of who that person is. I appreciate that in a book of this type. Sure, it results in paragraphs packed with proper nouns which may seem redundant to more seasoned Pakistani historians, but it offers a reprieve for the uninitiated in the subject.

The stories that stood out the most for me were the ones about the Red Mosque (Abdul Aziz Ghazi), Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Asma Jahangir, and Benazir Bhutto. I enjoyed these stories because they captured interesting personal and interpersonal dynamics. These four people all started their lives in very different places than where they ultimately ended up. It was interesting to read about the evolution of their careers/ideologies/relationships and how through persistence and determination they were able to shift the course of Pakistan.

Beyond these four individuals, there are a handful of other chapters that stand out, such as the one about a Pashtun leader, Anwar Kamal Khan. This chapter was interesting for highlighting how tribal traditions and leaders still carry weight in certain areas of Pakistan (more so than the established secular law of the land). And there was also the chapter about the millionaire politician who takes up the cause of a Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy, Salman Taseer, and his assassination at the hands of his own security guard.

Other chapters meander too much across too many topics, people, and settings, or just don’t capture a good enough tale.

Still, the book represents a good starting point for those interested in learning more about Pakistan. Throughout reading, I often found myself Googling people, places, or events to learn more about what I was reading, often realizing that I was just scratching the surface of a very complex element of Pakistani history. And throughout the book, I also made a shortlist of other books and authors I would like to read in the future, namely The Reluctant Fundamentalist (a book mentioned briefly in the chapter about Abdul Aziz Ghazi) and the author Saadat Hasan Manto (mentioned in the chapter about Muhammad Ali Jinnah and who is said to have captured much of Pakistan’s struggle with partition as part of his short stories, novels, and plays).

[Ali Mahdi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book via audiobooks. The narrator of the book is why i pegged a star off this rating. He was good enough, in that he spoke proudly and slowly, but he had NO grasp of how to pronounce common Pakistani terms (ie Peshawar was mispronounced pish-uh-wir).

The book itself was great. Has an objective view of Pakistan and it’s history. The history is why i was attracted to the book. Seldom can you find a good authority on Pakistani history without contortions, but this is as good as it comes.

It also talked a good deal about common/current idols in the fabric of pakistani contemporary issues. Most of whom many ordinary people would be unaware of. The author does a great job delineating various conflicts which a western education otherwise groups together (ie the Baloch and the Pashtun movements). Perhaps, this was my favorite aspect of the book; the author did a good job explaining underlining reasons for conflicts, citing to local testimony.

[Lubinka Dimitrova · Rating 4 out of 5]

In all honesty, I had different expectations from this book (completely my own fault, of course), to which it couldn't live up. After reading Imran Khan's memoir some months ago, I wanted to learn more about the current situation in Pakistan which this book couldn't illuminate. It is an (admittedly engaging) rehashing of known events with little light shed on the latest developments. I liked the author's writing, he paints very vivid portraits of the people he discusses, but other than that, not too much new information for a person who has been following the fate of the country.

[Amina Ahsan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great look back at the tumultuous history of Pakistan through the lives (and deaths) of 9 prominent individuals ...

Benazir Bhutto, Abdul Rashid Ghazi (the Red Mosque cleric), Jinnah, Anwar Kamal Khan (Pashtun Warlord), Asma Jahangir (Fabulous Senorita), Salman Taseer (the good Muslim), Colonel Imam (ISI Agent), Chaudry Aslam (Karachi’s famous cop) and Nawab Bugti (A Waziristan Sardar).

Walsh seems to understand this complicated and multi faceted country.

[Jianing Tu · Rating 5 out of 5]

A page-turner

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting book exploring Pakistan as a country through the lives of nine individuals. I am *not* a fan of books of short stories, and while each individual's story could stand on it's own, the author's constant commentary on the country's history, culture and religion, weaved in and throughout the individual's stories, lent an arc that held throughout the book and made them all a cohesive whole. What I found particularly interesting was the way in which Walsh, in a relatively short book, was/is able to provide an accurate, diverse book at the story on a variety of levels.

*You learn about Partition and its lasting consequences for Pakistan, both in the past and currently. *You learn about the cultures and personalities of the country's major urban areas (and how they differ), as well as areas throughout the countryside.
*You get to explore human and civil rights, and questions about the role of the military in government rule.
*You get to take a second look at the United States' role in the region and it's complicity in the ongoing violence that plagues Pakistan.

(I could make an extremely long list here).

But it's all done while getting to know individual's and get immersed in their stories. Reading through the "notes and stories" at at the end of the book, I was rather fascinating by how Walsh created the impression of firsthand knowledge of these people largely through secondhand sources. Th book makes you feel like you're in the room with him interviewing them, while somehow also knowing a bit of their backstories.

This is a great book that educates while also entertaining.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Walsh gives a portrait of modern Pakistan through a series of anecdotes of his 10 years as a journalist covering the culture and internal strife of Pakistan. He provides a targeted, people-focused history of the state from its founding, and tells his story through a handful of people he's interacted with during his time there.

I read it because I knew very little about the modern history of the Middle East, and I think Americans should know more. Our government is and has been intensely interfering with their internal politics, and many of the people who live there hate us for it.

Nine Lives helped provide a nice spectrum of perspectives of Pakistanis living there, from the police, to religious fundamentalists, to progressives, and many others, all of them defying perfect categorization. He introduces the various regions of Pakistan and paints a picture of the varied landscape of worldviews of the people living there.

My only criticism is that there was very little continuity in the story, and it was easy to get lost going from one event to the next. Sometimes it started to feel like his main purpose writing was to explain to himself why he was banished from Pakistan. Maybe his main point was to defend his actions there to the people who banished him, I'm not sure. But it definitely felt like this second objective detracted from his portrait of Pakistanis, particularly towards the end of the book, and confused the reading for me.

[Carol Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book about Pakistan by a reporter for the Guardian and The New York Times who covered developments there for 10 years. The chapters focus on different individuals who have had an impact on Pakistan, ranging from its founder, Jinnah, to a crusading journalist, venal mainstream politicians, militant religious leaders, people who hope for peaceful change, police officials (including some who think shooting criminals is more effective than arresting them), and leaders of tribal rebellions. Jinnah had hoped that the nation would be both a homeland for the subcontinent's Muslims and a country that tolerated religious differences. For some years it was that, but things have changed.

After reporting in Pakistan for 10 years, Declan Walsh was told by an agent of the nation's intelligence agency, the ISI, that he had to leave within three days. He was never allowed back. His reporting on rebels in Baluchistan, a large province in western Pakistan, apparently was the reason for his forced exodus.

I knew that Pakistan had many ethnic and political divisions, but its problems are worse than I had realized.

Walsh excels at both research and storytelling about a nation with the fifth largest population in the world. It's very worth reading.

[Riaz Ujjan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Declan Walsh is one of the New York Times’s finest and distinguished international correspondents. In 11 chapters of book "Nine Lives of Pakistan" an electrifying portrait of Pakistan over a tumultuous decade he 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.
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.
Loved his one sentence for the people of the country: "PAKISTANIS ARE SURVIVORS"

[Alejandra Castillo · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a 4.5 to me, the structure of being narrated in 9 separated biographies through the different chapters brakes the organization and the timeline in-between. It would be jumping from time to time and occasionally it would cut off the story built throughout one chapter.
Regardless, the book is amazing. The author makes you feel so alive in the moment, with the description of the places, the people, their discrepancies in between social groups and interactions. It gave me hunger of learning more about Pakistan and the mysteries of religious groups that had seized an advantaged area of power in the country. The authors journey through the relationship, as well, of Pakistan with India, Afghanistan and even Asian borders. The book is filled with history, thriller, inspiration and contradictions. It shocks how in 2010's still many of the atrocities described in the book, happens and even more, they are so normalize into Pakistani's society.
If you are looking to read something aside from the usually westernized political/investigational books, this for sure is a great recommendation.

[Daniel Warriner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this one. An excellent book that’s hard to put down. Walsh brings to life the settings—Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Quetta—to the same level of vibrance as the colorful (or dark) characters he covered during his decade-long stint in Pakistan as correspondent and resident. The book’s a mix of history, mystery, travelogue, politics, crime, war and more, framed around Walsh trying to work out why the intelligence agency expelled him. He distills the nation’s complex history, sectarian strife, interstate relations and nuts and bolts of government and politics into compelling language that implants a clear picture of Pakistan and its parts. Highly recommended.

“There were smoking guns aplenty, but none with any fingerprints.” ― Declan Walsh, The Nine Lives of Pakistan: Dispatches from a Precarious State