I will read a book from every country, vows Pakistan's 13-year-old Ann Morgan

In this year, Aisha Arif Esbhani has read 80 books

KARACHI: Following in the footsteps of writer Ann Morgan, Aisha Arif Esbhani is a 13-year-old on a mission to read one book from each country of the world. The difference is that while Morgan took it as a challenge to finish reading one book from each country in a year, Esbhani has allowed herself laxity in terms of time.

Aisha Arif Esbhani feels she has visited different countries through reading. PHOTO: COURTESY AISHA ARIF ESBHANI

"Reading has always been a passion and that's why I took up this challenge of reading a book from every country," says Esbhani, a student of class eight at Karachi Grammar School. "It's not a challenge [really] - rather a quest for reading it all by myself."

Esbhani set up a Facebook page, titled 'Reading Books from Every Country', in April last year. During this year, she has read 80 books and is currently on her 81^st book, Nadifa Mohamed's The Orchard of Lost Souls, which she just started. The writer of this book belongs to Somalia.



Delving into conversation about her hobby, Esbhani says her favourite are books on war. She counts A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, a writer from Sierra Leone, as an all-time favourite. "It recounts the child soldier's life - about military warfare and about the same child's rehabilitation," she says.

Another book depicting war that Esbhani likes is by a Croat, Sara Novic - A Girl at War. "[It is] about how she survived [during] warfare and its resultant impact," she says.

Esbhani is a little averse to humorous books. However, in recent times, she got her hands on a book from Trinidad and Tobago, VS Naipaul's Miguel Street. "It is a humorous book I really enjoyed, which I normally don't [in the case of humorous books]."



Talking about the books that have inspired her, she counts All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque from Germany and the Turkish bestseller, Elif Shafak's Forty Rules of Love at the top of the list.

But how does Esbhani manage to obtain all these books from the various parts of the world? According to her, Liberty Books used to have a few such books but they are not available anymore. "I personally believe [in appreciating] the work of others from the under-represented countries in terms of literature," she says. "I order them online via Book Depository and when my friends or relatives living in USA or UK are about to visit Pakistan, they bring it with them in bulk."

Currently, she says, she has her stock piled up and has plenty of time to read. She relies on visiting relatives or friends to get her eight books per visit. However, she shares, the last time she placed an order, a family friend got her as many as 14 books.



Esbhani feels she has visited the different countries through reading. She has overviewed Moroccan architecture, seen warfare in Sierra Leone, smelled spices from India and loved how people dress up in Sri Lanka.

"There was no book in English from Madagascar," she says. "My fascination grew about the land and as I was searching, I got connected to Allison M Charette, whose translated work from that country is yet to be published." She will be sending the book, called Beyond the Rice Field,s to Esbhani.