DAILY TELEGRAPH and INDEPENDENT BOOKS OF THE YEAR
LONGLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2012
2011 LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE FINALIST
In the wake of Pakistan's development of nuclear weapons, unpoliceable border areas, shelter of the Afghan Taliban and Bin Laden, and the spread of terrorist attacks by groups based in Pakistan to London, Bombay and New York, there is a clear need to look further than the simple image of a failed state so often portrayed in the media, and to see instead a country of immense complexity and importance.
Lieven's profound and sophisticated analysis paves the way for clearer understanding of this remarkable and highly contradictory country.
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Imprint: Penguin
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Published: 28/04/2011
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ISBN: 9780141969299
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Length: 592 Pages
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RRP: £10.99
Reviews
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Superb ... Few writers offer the insight and deep knowledge that Lieven has of a country critical for the West but one often caricatured by the media and rarely understood by Western policy makers ... Timely and compelling
Maleeha Lodhi
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This is a wonderful book, full of learning, wisdom, humour and common sense
Peter Oborne, Daily Telegraph
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One cannot give Lieven enough credit ... The book seamlessly flows with historical analysis, anthropological investigation, and painstaking contextualisation ... It is both grand in its scholastic description and in its journalistic flair
Ahmad Ali Khalid, Dawn
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A finely researched blend of the nation's 64-year history ... Lieven's feat lies in his remarkable, flesh-and-blood portrait of the nation ... this nuanced analysis should be read, and learned from
The Independent
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By far the most insightful survey of Pakistan I have read in recent years ... a vital book ... detailed and nuanced
Mohsin Hamid, New York Review of Books
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Lieven captures the richness of the place wonderfully. His book has the virtues of both journalism and scholarship
The Economist
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An important corrective to the monolithic view of Pakistan ... fresh and deeply informed
Patrick French, Mail on Sunday
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A brilliantly articulated and researched argument ... Lieven is a wonderful writer. There are frequent moments of dark humour ... and descriptions that a novelist might envy
Kamila Shamsie, The Times
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Everybody nowadays seems to take a view on Pakistan. Very few know what they're talking about. Anatol Lieven is that rare observer ... Pakistan: A Hard Country ... fills a large gap in our understanding
Edward Luce, author of 'In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India'
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The publication of Pakistan: A Hard Country could not be more timely ... illuminating as well as entertaining
The Spectator
