Go to Special Sales HBG USA Home Special Sales HBG USA

The Bargain from the Bazaar

A Family's Day of Reckoning in Lahore

The Bargain from the Bazaar Open the full-size image

Contributors

By Haroon K. Ullah

Also available from:

On Sale
Mar 11, 2014
Page Count
256 pages
Publisher
PublicAffairs
ISBN-13
9781610391672

Awais Reza is a shopkeeper in Lahore’s Anarkali Bazaar — the largest open market in South Asia — whose labyrinthine streets teem with shoppers, rickshaws, and cacophonous music.

But Anarkali’s exuberant hubbub cannot conceal the fact that Pakistan is a country at the edge of a precipice. In recent years, the easy sociability that had once made up this vibrant community has been replaced with doubt and fear. Old-timers like Awais, who inherited his shop from his father and hopes one day to pass it on to his son, are being shouldered aside by easy money, discount stores, heroin peddlers, and the tyranny of fundamentalists.

Every night before Awais goes to bed, he plugs in his cell phone and hopes. He hopes that the city will not be plunged into a blackout, that the night will remain calm, that the following morning will bring affluent and happy customers to his shop and, most of all, that his three sons will safely return home. Each of the boys, though, has a very different vision of their, and Pakistan’s, future.

The Bargain from the Bazaar — the product of eight years of field research — is an intimate window onto ordinary middle-class lives caught in the maelstrom of a nation falling to pieces. It’s an absolutely compelling portrait of a family at risk — from a violently changing world on the outside and a growing terror from within.

Genre:

Reading Group Guide (opens in a new tab)

Formats and Prices

Price

$14.99

Price

$19.99 CAD

Format

Format:

  1. ebook $14.99 $19.99 CAD
  2. Hardcover $36.00 $46.00 CAD

You May Also Like

Unruly Waters
Unruly Waters $35.00 $45.50 CAD
Army of Empire
Army of Empire $40.00 $52.00 CAD
Fierce Enigmas
Fierce Enigmas $40.00 $51.00 CAD
The Chaos of Empire
The Chaos of Empire $21.99 $28.99 CAD
India's War
India's War $35.00 $45.50 CAD

Haroon K. Ullah

About the Author

Haroon K. Ullah is a scholar, diplomat, and field researcher specializing in South Asia and the Middle East. Born to South Asian parents, Haroon grew up in a farming community in Washington State and was trained at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he served as a senior fellow and completed his MPA. He was a William J. Fulbright fellow, a Harvard University presidential scholar, a National Security Education Program fellow, and a Woodrow Wilson Public Service fellow. He is also the author of Vying for Allah’s Vote.

Learn more about this author