Suhayl Saadi to be Second British Council Writer in Residence
Renowned Scots-Asian writer Suhayl Saadi will be the second GW-British Council Writer in Residence. Born in Beverly, East Yorkshire, and raised in Glasgow, Saadi is best known as the author of the novel Psychoraag:
Taking place during the six hours of a radio broadcast, PSYCHORAAG tells the mythic, yet utterly modern tale of Zaf, a raga-rock DJ who finds the ghosts of his – and his family’s – past catching up with him during his last night on air. Mesmerised by the rain outside and the freedom that comes with the end of an era, Zaf has decided that, for this final night, he will take no requests. Tonight, he will play the songs his parents listened to in Pakistan; the pop records which became the soundtrack to his love affairs; the backing music to all his hopes and fears. As the boundaries between Zaf’s memories and his spoken broadcast begin to dissolve, a compelling story emerges.
Saadi has also published a novel called The Burning Mirror:
The Burning Mirror is a mixture of the seamy and the spiritual, the subtle, the baroque and the brutal. The canvas is broad: everything from Glaswegian Asian gangsta stories to themes drawn from various Trans-Mediterranean cultures, from the philosophising of a spirit trapped in a bottle to the everyday tribulations of a Catholic Evangelist, from a searing portrayal of brick-making villages in Pakistan to a Pointillist love story set amidst the late Twentieth Century Balkan Wars.
Saadi is also a poet, a short story writer, and — from everything we’ve heard — an incredibly charasmatic and all around good person. Look for news about his residency here soon: Saadi arrives on campus early in October.
