Established as a homeland for India’s Muslims in 1947, Pakistan has had a tumultuous history that has unfolded in the vortex of dire regional and international conflicts. In a probing biography of her native land amid the throes of global change, Ayesha Jalal, Director of Center for South Asian and Indian Ocean Studies, Tufts University, provides an insider’s assessment of how this nuclear-armed Muslim nation evolved as it did and explains why its dilemmas weigh so heavily on prospects for peace in the region.