They worry about their children’s education, the environment, climbing rates of drug addiction, their sports teams, fashion and the opposite sex.

Author Ethan Casey humanizes a people that most Americans know only as victims or terrorists on the evening news.

“’Alive and Well in Pakistan’ serves us well in rescuing the very ordinariness of life in Pakistan from the sensationalism and scare-mongering of self-interested pundits, the media, and even politicians,” reviewer Munis Faruqui wrote in the Harvard International Review.

Casey will present his book, “Alive and Well in Pakistan: A Human Journey in a Dangerous Time,” Sept. 17 at IslandWood on Bainbridge Island.

Casey traveled extensively in Kashmir and Pakistan in the mid ‘90s, retracing the steps of author V.S. Naipaul in the same region. A freelance journalist, he also taught journalism at a university in Lahore, Pakistan from 2003 to 2004.

Through his book Casey tries to present a “thin and arbitrary slice” of life in this region that Bill Clinton called “the most dangerous place in the world.”

Ahmed Rashid, author of “Taliban,” said of the book, “Pakistan just happens to be one of the most complex and difficult countries to describe, but Casey does a magnificent job. Casey’s prose sings and his portraits are master class.”

Instead of looking at Pakistan as one troubled whole, Casey breaks it down to a human level, with vignettes of individuals who share the same hopes, dreams and fears for the future that we do. Except that in Pakistan, politics and religion can be a matter of life and death.

“The book paints a multi-layered portrait of a country that is uncomfortable in its own skin, unable to live up to its founding ideals, and desperate to improve its image in the world,” Faruqui said. “Yet it is a country that is proud of its achievements, good-humored about its foibles, and hopeful that the future will prove better than the past.”

As a freelance journalist Casey has covered Asia, Haiti and Zimbabwe for publications such as The Guardian, The Globe and Mail and South China Morning Post. He also hosts a weekly podcast dialogue between Pakistan and the West called PakCast and has a blog called “The World at Large,” at http://ethancasey.blogspot.com. When not traveling he lives in Seattle.

For the presentation at IslandWood, Casey will focus on environment concerns in the mountainous region wracked by earthquakes and possessing nuclear weapons.

Ethan Casey discusses his book at 2 p.m. on Sept. 17 at IslandWood, 4450 Blakely Ave. NE, Bainbridge Island. Suggested donation is $5 per person, register online at www.islandwood.org or by phone at (206) 855-4300.