Karachi Vice: Life and Death in a Contested City Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Samira Shackle (Author), Amina Zia (Narrator), Granta Books (Publisher)

4.3 109 ratings

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Karachi. Pakistan's largest city is a sprawling metropolis of 20 million people. It is a place of political turbulence in which those who have power wield it with brutal and partisan force, a place in which it pays to have friends in the right places and to avoid making deadly enemies. It is a society where lavish wealth and absolute poverty live side by side, and where the lines between idealism and corruption can quickly blur.

It takes an insider to know where is safe, who to trust, and what makes Karachi tick, and in this powerful debut, Samira Shackle explores the city of her mother's birth in the company of a handful of Karachiites. Among them is Safdar the ambulance driver, who knows the city's streets and shortcuts intimately and will stop at nothing to help his fellow citizens. There is Parveen, the activist whose outspoken views on injustice corruption repeatedly lead her towards danger. And there is Zille, the hardened journalist whose commitment to getting the best scoops puts him at increasing risk. As their individual experiences unfold, so Shackle tells the bigger story of Karachi over the past decade: a period in which the Taliban arrive in Pakistan, adding to the daily perils for its residents and pushing their city into the international spotlight.

Writing with intimate local knowledge and a global perspective, Shackle paints a nuanced and vivid portrait of one of the most complex, most compelling cities in the world.

Listening Length

9 hours and 37 minutes
Author

Samira Shackle
Narrator

Amina Zia
Audible release date

10 February 2021
Language

English
Publisher

Granta Books
ASIN

B08WC88BLK
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	9 hours and 37 minutes
Author	Samira Shackle
Narrator	Amina Zia
Audible.in Release Date	10 February 2021
Publisher	Granta Books
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B08WC88BLK
Best Sellers Rank	#17,416 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #28 in Asia Travel & Tourism #104 in Indian History (Audible Books & Originals) #104 in South Asia History

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5

109 global ratings

5 star		59%
4 star		23%
3 star		12%
2 star		4%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from other countries

Cal Flyn

Thrilling and cinematic

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 8 February 2021

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I very much enjoyed this masterful work of narrative nonfiction, which weaves together the stories of five Karachiites to tell the story of the city's darkest and most violent years. As pen portraits, they work well, but there's also a remarkable section when two of their stories come together in a cinematic set-piece during a terrorist attack. Highly evocative of a place, and emotionally engaging. One comes away almost dizzied by the sense of lives coming together and apart, and the richness of the interior lives of everyone around us ... A strangely hopeful book, in as much as these five individuals are all pushing, in their own ways and for their own reasons, for a better life and a better city.

3 people found this helpful

A window into Karachi

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 17 March 2021

Verified Purchase

Incredible book. The author follows a handful of characters as they try to make a life for themselves in a violent, corrupt city. She's picked them well - a teacher, an ambulance driver, a crime reporter etc. - so that each of them shows you a different aspect of the city's politics and different communities. You feel like you are there with them as they try to hold onto their ideals. It's written in an understated way but it must have involved such a lot of research.

3 people found this helpful

David Allen

Outstanding read!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 12 February 2021

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This book is a triumph. Informative and compelling about people living in some deprived areas of Karachi it details the lives of five protagonists before widening into interlinked accounts. At turns compassionate, thrilling and horrific the narrative is novel-like in its involving power. Engrossing for everyone with the slightest interest in the subcontinent and also as an object lesson in gratitude for those of us fortunate enough to live in democracies largely governed by the rule of law and democratic accountability.

3 people found this helpful

Peter Munn

Inside look

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 13 March 2021

Verified Purchase

A real insight into toxic life in Karachi. There is never peace in this city because of the battles between political parties and gangsters with terrorism as well. The characters are completely understandable and likeable. Money wins over justice every time!

2 people found this helpful

Elle

A beautiful and heartbreaking portrait of a place

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 4 May 2021

Verified Purchase

A beautiful and heartbreaking portrait of a place through the eyes of five people. The author invites you to see life through the eyes of her subjects, to understand how their environment shaped them and how they in turn shape their environment. As you get to know them, topics that we are used to reading about with distance - headlines about terrorism and gangs - become real and relatable. Reading this book will give you a lot more than an education into Karachi, it will give you empathy.

2 people found this helpful

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Karachi Vice: Life and Death in a Contested City Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

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