BastiIntizar Husain is one of Pakistan'sand South Asia'sgreatest living writers. Basti, a haunting modernist echo chamber of voices from Hindu, Buddhist, and Islamic traditions, unflinchingly depicts contemporary political violence in prose that is suffused with a deep nostalgia for a much less tormented age. Basti is a transformative vision of both present and past. Pankaj Mishra Basti is a beautifully written reckoning with the tragic history of