Birth— 
Where—Lahore
Raised in— London
Education—Cambridge University
Currently—Lahore and London

Bibliography

• The End of Innocence (2006)

• Tender Hooks a.k.a. Duty Free (2011)

• The Diary of a Social Butterfly (2008)

•  The Return of the Butterfly (2014)

Mohsin grew up in Lahore, and describes herself as being from a family of “educated, westernised people”. When General Zia ul-Haq came to power in a coup in 1977, her family began to feel less comfortable in the new, religious Pakistan, where political repression against nonconformists became routine, but remained in Lahore.

Mohsin left Pakistan at 16 to study at a boarding school in England, and later attended Cambridge University, where she studied anthropology and archaeology. Afterward she returned to Pakistan, where she founded the country’s first nature magazine. After General Zia’s death she moved more decisively into the public sphere, working for the independent “Friday Times”, where she rose to the ranks of features editor.

Her books include “The End of Innocence”, her debut novel ‘”Tender Hooks” AKA “Duty Free”, and “The Diary of a Social Butterfly”. Her writing has also appeared in “The Times”, “The Guardian”, the “Washington Post”, “Prospect”, “The Nation”, and other publications.

She now divides her time between Lahore and London, where she lives with her husband and two children. Her sister, Jugnu Mohsin, is the publisher of “The Friday Times”, an independent Pakistani weekly.

The End of Innocence (2006)
Moni Mohsin
When nine-year-old Laila observes that winter trees “are full of sky”, her older, wiser sister corrects her: “They’re not full of sky, they’re naked.” But Laila has an old habit of finding magic in the world around her. When she sees a film based on a legend of star-crossed love, she feels that Heer should be more like her 15-year-old friend Rani, the inventive, pretty granddaughter of a family servant, than like the buxom, hairy movie star who plays her.