The Nine Lives of Pakistan: Dispatches from a Precarious State - Hardcover

The Nine Lives of Pakistan: Dispatches from a Precarious State

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.

Investigative Reporting from Pakistan's Frontlines

Walsh's decade-long immersion in Pakistan provides readers with unprecedented access to the country's most critical regions and compelling figures. From Waziristan's mountainous borderlands to Karachi's bustling ports, this hardcover chronicles the intersection of extremism, political upheaval, and individual courage across Pakistan's diverse landscape.

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.