A city of teeming millions, Karachi seems to defy description. It is a city of myriad metaphors. It is a city which will be the pride of the East, wrote a visitor in the last century while a recent essay describes it as the saddest of the cities. It is the city nobody loves, says another. Millions and millions continue to live and work in this city, hating and loving it at the same time. But who understands its story? Karachi is also the city of many texts. It has drawn a range of writers across languages and genres, from Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai to Kamila Shamsie, Qurratulain Hyder to Asad Muhammad Khan and Hasan Manzar, Faiz Ahmed Faiz to Fehmida Riaz, Sir Richard Burton to Lawrence (of Arabia). This anthology of writings in and about Karachi presents the many moods and features of the city through writings which collectively highlight the city of many realities and multiple identities.