The end of mirth DOG-EARED The irrepressible writer Moni Mohsin is publishing a new novel to take the edge off this bitter year. Or so you tell yourself, until you crack open The Impeccable Integrity Of Ruby R. and realise that it’s a tragedy in the packaging of a comedy. Ruby R. isn’t about the pandemic. It’s a story about the subcontinent’s other viral problem, populism. The titular Miss Ruby Rauf is a struggling university student in London who attends a talk by trim, springy-haired actor-turnedpolitician Saif Haq. Saif wants to transform their home country, Pakistan. He wishes to cleanse politics; he wants to punish the corrupt; all he wants for himself and his millions of countrymen is justice.