Tender Hooks by Moni Mohsin. Chatto & Windus, £12.99.

PAKISTANI writer Moni Mohsin returns with her third novel, Tender Hooks, a sequel to her 2009 book The Diary Of A Social Butterfly. And again, it is a romp through Pakistan’s high society written in a diary format.

Many of the laughs originate from malapropisms and Butterfly’s haphazard English, but her writing also provides a social commentary on the problems facing the country, which are exaggerated by Butterfly’s often naïve and scathing, view of the world.

This time she is challenged to find a potential wife for her twice-divorced cousin, Jonkers, a journey which unwittingly dissects the polarised views between traditional Pakistani society and the more liberal youngsters who tend to be educated in foreign countries.

Her bickering family provides an insight into the class system and tensions that abound within it, especially as they trawl the city looking for potential brides.

Butterfly’s world is at once immersive and foreign, but underneath jokes and quips is a serious, well-written novel.

BEN MAJOR