Although there is much being done on Pakistan, most of that work focuses on Pakistan as a problematic partner in the so-called war on terror, a failed state which is a hotbed of extremism and a security nightmare. Little has been done on this current generation of writers – writing (in English) from a Pakistani point of view – and what they have to say about the present situation, its causes and possible solutions, as well as the future. My book, largely intended for university audiences, looks at this writing as primarily historical fiction, and the interconnections of family, history and the making of a nation which is both ancient and very young, born out of colonialism and Partition, and the questions of identity which arise in an Islamic republic, not to mention the collective trauma which the current generation carries as part and parcel of Partition and the 1971 war.