With an international reputation for volatility, brutality and radical Islam, reports of Pakistan's imminent collapse are not unusual. But then Pakistan never behaves as one expects it to, as renowned journalist Declan Walsh knows well, having covered the country for over a decade. His travels across the country took him from the raucous port of Karachi to the gilded salons of Lahore to the lawless frontier of Waziristan, compiling a portrait of this land of contradictions through the people.