Summer in Pakistan is long, tedious and alternates between dry and sticky. But, it is also the best time to catch up on reading lists—which, if you’re like us, are never-ending. While our Books section keeps you updated with insightful analyses of some of our favourite books, here, we bring you a small selection of what our editors have been reading this summer.
Fiction:
Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
“Maybe it was that Cyrus had done the wrong drugs in the right order, or the right drugs in the wrong order, but when God finally spoke back to him after twenty-seven years of silence, what Cyrus wanted more than anything else was a do-over.”
The opening to Martyr! places us right in the middle of our protagonist’s epiphany. Cyrus, an Irani-American artist, who grew up with the grief of having his mother’s plane shot out of the Iranian airspace by the US, has been actively self destructing since he knew how to. Newly sober and lacking purpose, he finds himself obsessed with the concept of a ‘purposeful’ death which leads him to Orkideh—an Irani artist who’s dying, on display, at a museum.
Cyrus is one of those protagonists you may severely dislike, due to his extremely self-important and self-deprecating narration (and destructive habits), but he is a beautiful exhibit of how if you take enough jabs at yourself, you might just split yourself open. Not like a wound, but a lock, a cocoon, maybe even a ripe fruit. Martyr! is a poet’s novel; a raw look at grief, identity and how we spend our entire lives searching for meaning in faith, art, ourselves and others.
Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon
Let us set the scene: we are on the island of Sicily in the age of classical antiquity. Athenian prisoners from the Peloponnesian war have been left to rot in a quarry, while their Syracusan captors decide what to do with them. Enter Lamp and Gelon, two unemployed potters, who enjoy their fair share of poetry and drink. Wishing to hear some authentic Athenian poetry (especially that of Euripides), they offer food and drink to the prisoners in exchange for verses. From there begins a riotous story, where our protagonists decide to put on a production of Medea with the Athenian prisoners as players. What could go wrong?
This debut by Irish author Ferdia Lennon, written in a contemporary Irish voice, is as funny as it is poignant. A tale of the human desire for art and creativity, against all odds; a story of friendship, love and the healing power of art, even when all seems lost.
Non-Fiction:
All Things Are Too Small by Becca Rothfeld
An incredible collection of essays in favour of excess in a world that is rapidly turning to minimalising itself. Ranging from mindfulness and decluttering, to desire, consent, reinvention and spiritual impoverishment—Becca Rothfeld makes an intelligent and delightful case for how everyone is shedding more of themselves for ‘less’ of everything, whether that’s aesthetics and culture or responsibilities and commitments to themselves and others. Recommended reading for everyone in favour of more.
The Vast Extent by Lavinia Greenlaw
An illuminating collection of essays—where scientific inquiry meets poetic response—from celebrated poet and memoirist Lavinia Greenlaw, that will make you look at the world anew. Lavinia Greenlaw dedicated this book to her brother, who passed away while she was in the middle of putting this book together. Despite the cruelty of her brother’s sudden passing, which is also a kind of life’s mysteries, she earnestly asks people to look at the unseen and beyond it. In doing so, the book becomes a testament to the light she earnestly sheds (and asks us to look to) on the world despite all the grief.
