Ali Sethi (Books)

Ali Sethi Books

Ali Sethi hails from a family of dissenting journalists and publishers in Pakistan. A recent Harvard graduate, his writing has graced the pages of prominent publications such as The New York Times and The Nation. His work delves into the intricacies of human psychology and societal issues with profound insight. Sethi's prose explores the complexities of identity and culture with remarkable sensitivity and intelligence.

The Wish Maker

420 pages
15 hours of reading

2.9(18)Add rating

"The Wish Maker is a coming-of-age story set in 1990s Pakistan, a story about two children and the family they grow up in, the people and the places they come to know and love. It's a story about Lahore, the city, seen gradually through the decades; a story about Benazir Bhutto and the heady promise of democracy, and the recurring nightmare of military intervention; a story about Bollywood movie stars and American TV shows and the different kinds of forbidden love they inspire. But the novel is also intended to be a meditation on the individual consciousness, a journey into the soul's capacity to know other souls, to recognize itself in others and to grant others the validity it grants itself, which is the validity of desire, of wanting more and better things all the time. This, the capacity for wish-making, for ascribing insatiability and incompletion to other people's ideas of themselves is the central concern of the book."--Ali Sethi.