From the outside, Pakistan appears volatile and fragile: a country torn between pride, perversity and despair. The September 2001 attacks on America triggered heaving change inside Pakistan society and a vicious new conservatism took root, turning its arguments about religion, power and identity violent. Pakistan became the very depiction of Fundamentalism: filled with radical Islamists, duplicitous generals and powerful dictators, injecting Saudi-style conservative Islam into society and creating plutonium-grade terrorist turmoil.
Insh'Allah Nation challenges this common perception of a rogue state filled with terrorists by telling the compelling stories of ten extraordinary Pakistanis, offering a fresh, unvarnished, yet upbeat view of Pakistan, subverting Western cliches and portraying the country not just as a land of paradox and danger, but of beauty and delight.
Declan Walsh is one of the most experienced commentators on this most fascinating, complex and dangerous country. He was the Guardian's correspondent in Pakistan for nearly ten years before being thrown out by ISI, and is now with the New York Times. Unravelling the country's many mysteries of state and religion, Walsh illuminates and entertains, vividly unpeeling Pakistan and the Insh'Alla, if God wishes it, way of life. A formidable book and the brilliant and important debut of a writer with a considerable future.