A few days ago, reddit user Backforward24 made a map of the world, but instead used books and it looked beautiful

But there’s just ONE problem. The book used for Pakistan is ‘I Am Malala’ and… umm… that didn’t go down so well with Pakistanis

Malala gets a lot of hate (which I don’t understand) in Pakistan but keeping that aside her book and her achievements are indisputable and her biography is an important one BUT it doesn’t define the Pakistani literary tradition.

Keeping the Urdu literature to one side, Pakistani authors and books are as good as writing talent in any country. The novels produced by Pakistanis are such a joy to read because they’re based on our lives and the connection you feel reading those are unparalleled.

In response to this, the only befitting response we could think of was to list the BEST Pakistani books written in recent times, because hey, our authors deserve some love too:

A Case Of Exploding Mangoes – Muhammad Hanif

My Feudal Lord – Tehmina Durrani

In Other Rooms, Other Wonders – Daniyal Mueenuddin 

Where They Dream In Blue – Bina Shah

Home Boy – HM Naqvi

Kartography – Kamila Shamsi

Ice Candy Man – Bapsi Sidhwa 

The Scatter Here Is Too Great – Bilal Tanweer

Moth Smoke – Mohsin Hamid

Maps For Lost Lovers – Nadeem Aslam 

Pakistani writers are plenty, and they’ve written loads. Scratch that, they continue to write everyday. Our everyday lives are being made into fantastic tales, and the sad thing is that we don’t celebrate the tradition. Let alone English writing, hum tou Urdu writing ko bhi nahin ghaas nahin dete. The more we love and read our own work the more the world will know about Pakistani writers. Maybe then someone making a map of the world through books won’t use a biography as the representation of literature in the country.