The Nine Lives of Pakistan: Dispatches from a Precarious State (PDF) (Print)

A New York Times New Book to Watch For (November 2020)

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 TimesÕs 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 Ònine livesÓ 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 WalshÕs abrupt deportation, The Nine Lives of Pakistan concludes with an astonishing encounter with that agent, and his revelations about PakistanÕs 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.