Pakistan is viewed by many as the most dangerous place in the world, a failing state racked by insurgence and instability. In this remarkable book Anatol Lieven, who has been reporting on Pakistan for many years, overturns the familiar image. Using hundreds of interviews with people whose views are rarely consulted from soldiers and intelligence officers to village mullahs and rickshaw drivers he shows that extremism far weaker in Pakistan than we think, and that its people, history and traditions will frustrate any outsider’s attempt to categorize the country.