Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

Three Cups of Tea

One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations... One School at a Time

by Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin

The astonishing, uplifting story of a real-life Indiana Jones and his humanitarian campaign to use education to combat terrorism in the Taliban’s backyard Anyone who despairs of the individual’s power to change lives has to read the story of Greg Mortenson, a homeless mountaineer who, following a 1993 climb of Pakistan’s treacherous K2, was inspired by a chance encounter with impoverished mountain villagers and... (more)

The Reluctant Fundamentalist

by Mohsin Hamid

At a café table in Lahore, a bearded Pakistani man converses with an uneasy American stranger. As dusk deepens to night, he begins the tale that has brought them to this fateful meeting . . . Changez is living an immigrant’s dream of America. At the top of his class at Princeton, he is snapped up by the elite "valuation" firm of Underwood Samson. He thrives on the energy of New York, and his infatuation with... (more)

Midnight's Children: A Novel

by Salman Rushdie

Introduction by Anita Desai

A Case of Exploding Mangoes

by Mohammed Hanif

A first novel of the first order—provocative, exuberant, wickedly clever—that reimagines the conspiracies and coincidences leading to the mysterious 1988 plane crash that killed Pakistan’s dictator General Zia ul-Haq. At the center is Ali Shigri: Pakistan Air Force pilot and Silent Drill Commander of Fury Squadron. His father, one of Zia’s colonels, committed suicide under suspicious circumstances. Ali is... (more)

Iqbal

by Francesco D'Adamo

When young Iqbal is sold into slavery at a carpet factory, his arrival changes everything for the other overworked and abused chidren there. It is Iqbal who explains to them that despite their master's promises, he plans on keeping them as his slaves indefinetely. But it is also Iqbal who inspires the other children to look to a future free from toil...and is brave enough to show them how to get there. This moving... (more)

Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind (Readers Circle)

Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind (Readers Circle)

by Suzanne Fisher Staples

Life is both sweet and cruel to strong-willed young Shabanu, whose home is the windswept Cholistan Desert of Pakistan. The second daughter in a family with no sons, she’s been allowed freedoms forbidden to most Muslim girls. But when a tragic encounter with a wealthy and powerful landowner ruins the marriage plans of her older sister, Shabanu is called upon to sacrifice everything she’s dreamed of. Should she do... (more)

Train to Pakistan

by Khushwant Singh

Train to Pakistan is the story of this isolated village that is plunged into the abyss of religious hate. It is also the story of a Sikh boy and a Muslim girl whose love endured and transcends the ravages of war.

Beneath My Mother's Feet

by Amjed Qamar

"Our lives will always be in the hands of our mothers, whether we like it or not." Nazia doesn't mind when her friends tease and call her a good beti, a dutiful daughter. Growing up in a working-class family in Karachi, Pakistan, Nazia knows that obedience is the least she can give to her mother, who has spent years saving and preparing for her dowry. But every daughter must grow up, and for fourteen-year-old... (more)

In Other Rooms, Other Wonders

by Daniyal Mueenuddin

A major literary debut that explores class, culture, power, and desire among the ruling and servant classes of Pakistan. In the spirit of Joyce's Dubliners and Turgenev's A Sportsman's Sketches , Daniyal Mueenuddin's collection of linked stories illuminates a place and a people through an examination of the entwined lives of landowners and their retainers on the Gurmani family farm in the... (more)

Kartography

by Kamila Shamsie

Raheen and her best friend, Karim, share an idyllic childhood in upper-class Karachi. Their parents were even once engaged to each others' partners until they rematched in what they call "the fiancée swap." But as adolescence distances the friends, Karim takes refuge in maps while Raheen searches for the secret behind her parents' exchange. What she uncovers reveals not just a family's but a country's turbulent... (more)

Maps for Lost Lovers (Vintage International)

Maps for Lost Lovers (Vintage International)

by Nadeem Aslam

If Gabriel García Márquez had chosen to write about Pakistani immigrants in England, he might have produced a novel as beautiful and devastating as Maps for Lost Lovers. Jugnu and Chanda have disappeared. Like thousands of people all over Enland, they were lovers and living together out of wedlock. To Chanda’s family, however, the disgrace was unforgivable. Perhaps enough so as to warrant murder. As he explores... (more)

The Wish Maker

by Ali Sethi

A major new international voice debuts with a sweeping story of love, friendship, and family ties that brings to life the turbulent world of modern Pakistan. The unforgettable story of a fatherless boy growing up in a household of outspoken women, The Wish Maker is also a tale of sacrifice, betrayal, and indestructible friendship. Zaki Shirazi and his female cousin Samar Api were raised to consider themselves... (more)

Listen to the Wind

by Greg Mortenson, Susan L. Roth

Greg Mortenson stumbled, lost and delirious, into a remote Himalayan village after a failed climb up K2. The villagers saved his life, and he vowed to return and build them a school. The remarkable story of his promise kept is now perfect for reading aloud. Told in the voice of Korphe’s children, this story illuminates the humanity and culture of a relevant and distant part of the world in gorgeous collage, while... (more)

The Kite Runner

by Khaled Hosseini

In his debut novel, The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini accomplishes what very few contemporary novelists are able to do. He manages to provide an educational and eye-opening account of a country's political turmoil--in this case, Afghanistan--while also developing characters whose heartbreaking struggles and emotional triumphs resonate with readers long after the last page has been turned over. And he does this on... (more)

Charlie Wilson's War

by George Crile

Charlie Wilson's War was a publishing sensation and a New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times bestseller. In the early 1980s, a Houston socialite turned the attention of maverick Texas congressman Charlie Wilson to the ragged band of Afghan "freedom fighters" who continued, despite overwhelming odds, to fight the Soviet invaders. Wilson, who sat on the all-powerful House Appropriations Committee,... (more)

The Age of Kali: Indian Travels and Encounters

The Age of Kali: Indian Travels and Encounters

by Permissions, HarperCollins (UK) Publishers

William Dalrymple chronicles ten years of living and traveling in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and India. Here he discovers a region falling into a time of darkness, discord and disintegration which according to ancient Hindu cosmology is known as the Age of Kali. Despite the area's strife and discontent, Dalrymple's attitude does not fall to pessimism, rather every page reveals his passion for the people and culture of... (more)

Moth Smoke: A Novel

by Mohsin Hamid

Through a brilliant array of voices and perspectives, debut author Mohsin Hamid tells the story of one love-struck Daru Shezad, who when fired from his banking job, instantly removes himself from the ranks of Pakistan's cell-phone-toting elite and plunges into a life of drugs and crime.But when a heist goes awry, Daru finds himself on trial for a murder he may not have committed. His uncertain fate mirrors that of... (more)

Haveli (Laurel Leaf Books)

by Suzanne Fisher Staples

The world of Newbery Honor book Shabanu is vividly re-created in this novel of a young Pakistani woman's heartbreaking struggle against the tyranny of custom and ancient law. Shabanu, now a mother at 18, faces daily challenges to her position in her husband's household, even as she plans for her young daughter's education and uncertain future. Then, during a visit to the haveli, their home in the city of... (more)

Pakistani Bride

by Bapsi Sidhwa

Zaitoon, an orphan, is adopted by Qasim, who has left the isolated hill town where he was born and made a home for the two of them in the glittering, decadent city of Lahore. As the years pass Qasim makes a fortune but grows increasingly nostalgic about his life in the mountains. Impulsively, he promises Zaitoon in marriage to a man of his tribe. But for Zaitoon, giving up the civilized city life she remembers to... (more)

Cracking India: A Novel

by Bapsi Sidhwa

The 1947 Partition of India is the backdrop for this powerful novel, narrated by a precocious child who describes the brutal transition with chilling veracity. Young Lenny Sethi is kept out of school because she suffers from polio. She spends her days with Ayah, her beautiful nanny, visiting with the large group of admirers that Ayah draws. It is in the company of these working class characters that Lenny learns... (more)

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Top Books

One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations... One School at a Time

by Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin

by Mohsin Hamid

by Salman Rushdie

by Mohammed Hanif

by Francesco D'Adamo

by Suzanne Fisher Staples

by Khushwant Singh

by Amjed Qamar

by Daniyal Mueenuddin

by Kamila Shamsie

by Nadeem Aslam

by Ali Sethi

by Greg Mortenson, Susan L. Roth

by Khaled Hosseini

by George Crile

by Permissions, HarperCollins (UK) Publishers

by Mohsin Hamid

by Suzanne Fisher Staples

by Bapsi Sidhwa

by Bapsi Sidhwa