"A Case of Exploding Mangoes" by Mohammed Hanif has finally been released in the country's official language Urdu.
The former fighter pilot-turned journalist, novelist and librettist is best known for the 2008 novel which chronicles the final days of hardline dictator General Zia-ul-Haq's rule and the myriad conspiracies behind the plane crash that killed him in 1988.
Although "Mangoes" is generously salted with heavy doses of humour, the book also unleashes harsh criticism at military establishment.
While "Mangoes" was set in Zia's Pakistan, it was first released in English - the language of Pakistan's small, educated elite - during the violent rule of another military dictator, Pervez Musharraf.
It coincided with Hanif's return to Pakistan after spending nearly 12 years in London with the BBC.
"Some of my journalist friends were scared for me," he recalled.
"I was lucky because 2008 was a particularly bad year in Pakistan with a lot of bloodshed," including the onset of the Pakistani Taliban insurgency, which likely "distracted" potential censors, he tells AFP.
Internationally, the novel earned glowing reviews and was longlisted for the Booker Prize, with critics comparing Hanif to famous satire writers Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut.
Despite the widespread praise, more than a decade passed before the novel was translated into Urdu.
As such, the Urdu edition of "Mangoes" is "very timely," says Harris Khalique, a poet and rights activist.
Book's Publisher Hoori Noorani is hoping to sell a few thousand copies - a decent number in a country with low literacy rates and an ongoing economic downturn that he says has forced some people to "choose between buying a book or food".
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019