Pakistani Authorities Paid No Mind To This Satirical Novel When It Was In English. Now That It’s In Urdu, They’re Confiscating It

“First published, in English, in 2008, [Mohammed Hanif’s] A Case of Exploding Mangoes is a dark satire about the possible reasons for the death of [dictator] General Zia [ul-Haq] in a plane crash in 1988. Featuring bumbling generals and homosexual romance, it was shortlisted for the Guardian first book award, longlisted for the Booker and won the Commonwealth prize for best first novel.” The Urdu translation of the novel has just been released, and men claiming to be from the Pakistani military spy agency ISI raided the Karachi offices of the book’s publisher, seized all the copies, and demanded a list of booksellers who had ordered it. – The Guardian