Zain Saeed earned his MFA from the University of Texas at Austin. His work has appeared in several places, including
Glimmer Train, The Hindu BL ink, and the
Freiburg Review. He lives in Karachi, where he teaches literature and creative writing at Habib University.
Born in a Karachi slum, Sharif Barkati became obsessed with "American" ideas of love and freedom at a very young age. He began to dream of a public place in the city that did not follow the rules, where people would be free to say and do whatever they wanted under open skies, away from the conservative eyes of Pakistani society.
With the help of his friend Afzal - and TJ, an extremely wealthy Pakistani-American - Sharif was able to realize his dream in the form of a colossal compound on the Karachi coast, full of bars, cafes, clubs, and the people of Karachi strolling about, hand in hand.
They called it Little America.
Now in prison, Sharif tells the story of his life in a letter to his favorite novelist, hoping that he will turn it into a literary masterpiece. At once a rollicking journey around the mind of a man desperate to be free, an allegory of the neocolonial endeavour, and an investigation of the desire to emulate the perceived superior while desperately trying to hold on to one's own cultural identity, Little America asks the question: What, really, is freedom, and what can be sacrificed in its name?
'Karachi as never dreamed of before. A cracking debut'Little America is an outrageous, gorgeous, beautiful, painful, bizarre, hilarious, utterly brilliant novel. It is a book soaked in passion and wicked imagination. Its energy is addictive, its hero an astounding creation, its city so deftly observed. It is also a book full of love. And I loved it, absolutely.Little America is an astonishing novel, brilliant in every sense of the word. a tour de force of voice and character, hilarious and heartbreaking, inventive and about life itself, a Wunderkammer of people and ideas.Zain Saeed's debut novel asks if the American brand of freedom can mean release for some Pakistanis... You'll be doing yourself a favour if you read about something seemingly quotidian as freedom. But most of all, you'll realise that the word "freedom" isn't interchangeable with American.Zain Saeed explores the sense of 'longing' pop culture onslaught from the West has inflicted on young PakistanisZain Saeed's quintessentially Pakistani, fast-paced debut novel written with elegance and humour will most certainly be appreciated by anyone who reads it.
