This funny and subversive novel reckons with life under martial law in late-70s Pakistan This funny and subversive novel reckons with life under martial law in late-70s Pakistan M ohammed Hanif’s novels address the more troubling aspects of Pakistani history and politics with unhinged, near-treasonous irreverence. His 2008 Booker-longlisted debut, A Case of Exploding Mangoes , was a scabrously comic portrait of General Zia-ul-Haq in the days leading up to his death in a suspicious plane crash