Karachi Vice: Life and Death in a Contested City

Description

Karachi. Pakistan's largest city is a sprawling metropolis of 20 million people. It is a place of political turbulence where those who have power wield it with brutal and partisan force, a place where it pays to have friends in the right places and to avoid making deadly enemies. It is a society where lavish wealth and absolute poverty live side by side, and where the lines between idealism and corruption can quickly blur. It takes an insider to know what makes Karachi tick, and in this powerful debut, Samira Shackle explores the city of her mother's birth in the company of a handful of Karachiites. Among them are a committed ambulance driver, an outspoken activist, and a hardened journalist, all of whom find themselves in daily danger. As their individual experiences unfold, so Shackle tells the bigger story of Karachi over the past decade: a period in which the Taliban arrive in Pakistan, adding to the daily perils for its residents and pushing their city into the international spotlight. Writing with intimate local knowledge and a global perspective, Shackle paints a nuanced and vivid portrait of one of the most complex, most compelling cities in the world.

Samira Shackle is the editor of New Humanist magazine and a regular contributor to the Guardian Long Read She travels regularly to Pakistan, where she has family, and spent extensive time there working on the book. Karachi Vice is her debut.

Any of the finely drawn characters in Karachi Vice could be the subject of an entire book - placed beside each other they form a tapestry that reveals a violent, vibrant, remarkable, battered city. I was completely gripped by it -- Kamila Shamsie Shackle expertly and empathetically leads the reader in ... the book reveals a city, a people - and through them a country - with tremendous poise and the skills of a fastidious reporter * Daily Telegraph * A blistering tour of Karachi's mean streets, seen through the eyes of the people who know it best. Heart-breaking and compelling in equal measure. To understand the forces shaping the mega-cities of the global south, join Shackle's characters and get under the skin of Pakistan's largest -- Ben Rawlence Remarkable... compelling... This is a sensitive and elegantly constructed book, which offers a moving snapshot of a restless city and its resilient citizens * Prospect * A moving account of the struggles of everday heroes - and of the unhappy metropolis that needs them * Economist * A brilliant portrait of a complex place... in some senses, the book is like a novel: each character is so beautifully drawn that we are in their heads with ease... alongside the brutality is the resilience, vitality and moral backbone of Shackle's five subjects: despite being battered day after day, they hold on to their values, and their character, and in doing so, they give us hope -- Razia Iqbal * Mail on Sunday * Gripping... Karachi Vice meticulously constructs a vibrant mosaic of a city's underbelly, while disentangling the ways in which Karachi is enmeshed with crime lords, gangs, political interests and militants. Samira Shackle's prose is nimble and propulsive, as she expertly combines interview, anecdote and reportage with in-depth socio-political analysis * TLS * Remarkable... compelling... This is a sensitive and elegantly constructed book, which offers a moving snapshot of a restless city and its resilient citizens * Prospect *