by John Freeman (ed.).
All about Pakistan.
My heart dropped when I saw that the opening piece in this Pakistan-themed edition of Granta was a 42-page short story. But I skipped it, and quickly got on to the non-fiction, of which there was a reasonable amount.
On the whole, I found this edition a bit same-ish… The majority of the non-fiction seemed to be about Pakistani politics and terrorism. There wasn't an awful lot in there about ordinary Pakistanis—although I did enjoy Kamila Shamsie's piece about Pop Idols. Declan Walsh's reportage piece about Pakistan's northern frontier, and Basharat Peer's about Kashmir were also very good.
One interesting factoid I picked up from reading this edition of Granta: did you know that the name Pakistan is an acronym? Apparently, it is derived from Punjab, Afghan Province, Kashmir, Sind, and BaluchisTAN.
Which I found interesting.