Our Lady of Alice Bhatti, By Mohammed Hanif

Alice Bhatti is a lapsed Christian nurse working in a hospital in Karachi.

Warm-hearted, feisty and with a criminal record, it's no surprise when she finds herself being courted by Muslim Teddy Butt, a bodybuilder by day, a policeman by night.

Hanif's debut A Case of Exploding Mangoes showed the author's gift for political satire, and this is no less fun and character-driven.

Woven into the madcap comedy there's a more serious subtext. Not a day goes by when Alice doesn't see a woman "shot or hacked, strangled or suffocated, poisoned or burnt, hanged or buried alive."