In this context, Pakistan Here and Now: Insights into Society, Culture, Identity and Diaspora — a volume of essays edited by poet and essayist Harris Khalique and development practitioner Irfan Ahmad Khan — is a welcome arrival. With its self-describing subtitle, the volume comprises seven essays on topics ranging from cinema, censorship, curriculum, music, history and poetry that collectively take a long view to understand how historical and political developments — and accidents — have shaped Pakistan’s culture. The contributors hail from various disciplines — media, academia, development, gender studies — and each essay has a lively, distinct voice. The essays leap from academic theorising to anecdote, historical narration to personal reflection, and readers are better off abandoning expectations of a traditional edited volume. Instead, the book should be thought of as an opportunity to join a conversation, as the writers seem to speak to each other across their contributions, common-minded friends seeking to provoke each other