For Dunya Digital, I wrote about one of the Pakistani novels I revisit the most — Kamila Shamsie’s Salt and Saffron, on the 25th anniversary of its publication. So much of this book is embedded in my memory, and it was really lovely to get to recall the experience of reading it, and how much it still holds up.

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“I think it’s ridiculous and restricting to put labels on fiction, so I could tell you that this is a book about class and social politics. It is also a romance and a family drama. It is also about a literal language: of food. This is a novel told by a Karachiite writer in the way that it describes meals: with obsession, with the kind of maniacal, proselytising zeal that makes people think of Karachiites as slightly unhinged, in the way that locals seek out the best biryani / haleem / bun kebab / lemon tart / pairing of Slims — and believe in the superiority of that choice forever. (For every Karachi person who says they know the best biryani / haleem / nihari / samosa, there is another person who knows one better.) It is a story told in the way a Karachi person tells you a Karachi story, where taunts and tarts are seamlessly woven in. Or, as Sameer, one of the characters, says: ‘There is no digression, only added detail.’“