Suhayl Saadi
Born in Yorkshire but now living in Glasgow, Suhayl Saadi is a novelist, dramatist, poet and award-winning short-story writer. His collection of short stories, The Burning Mirror, received wide critical acclaim. Psychoraag has been shortlisted for the 2005 James Tait Black Awards, and has been selected as one of the 100 Best Scottish Books promotion (Orange/The List)
‘A wonderfully audacious, linguistically elastic, verbally inventive, joyously irreverent work of literature’
Sunday Herald
‘Funny, clever and complex, his Scots Asian voice is very fresh and reminiscent of masters like Salman Rushdie and Alan Warner’
The List
‘The vibrancy of Saadi’s writing is itself a burning mirror to that of Scottish writing as a whole’
The Scotsman
Books by Suhayl Saadi
Joseph’s Box
Recently bereaved Zuleikha MacBeth wades into the Clyde one morning and recovers a large box, with which she becomes obsessed. The discovery of the box brings her together with Alex, a lute-playing clerk, and they manage to open the box – only to find six further boxes inside which they can only open once they have followed cryptic clues. The clues lead Zulie and Alex on a physical and emotional journey modulated through music across Glasgow, Argyllshire, Lincolnshire, Sicily, Lahore, and finally the frozen peaks of the ‘Roof of the World’. Zulie, a troubled doctor, finds herself sucked into the vortex of the terminally ill Archie MacPherson, an ambivalent, visionary ex-WW2 airman and Glasgow shipyard worker. In the manner of a lord of misrule, Archie’s dying consciousness begins to shape and ultimately define Zuleikha and Alex’s quest as they progress through the seven Sufi stations of sacrifice, truth, power, obedience, life, memory and beauty.
Drawing on a wide framework of cultural and spiritual reference, this is an extraordinary and ambitious novel with with a visceral sensuality and subtle touches of magical realism, in the vein of Okri, Murakami and Pamuk.
UK Publication Date: July 2009
UK&Commonwealth (excl India): Two Ravens