Saba Karim Khan is an author, award winning filmmaker and educator, whose writing has appeared in The Guardian, The Independent, Wasafiri, Huff Post, EN Fuego, Verso, DAWN, Express Tribune, Think Progress.
She has read Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford and works at NYU Abu Dhabi. Her doc-film, Concrete Dreams: Some Roads Lead Home is now on Amazon Prime Video. Before joining the Academy, she worked as Country Marketing and Public Affairs Head at Citigroup. Born in Karachi, she now lives in Abu Dhabi with her husband and two daughters.
Skyfall is her debut novel published by Bloomsbury in December 2020. The blurb of the book reads:
Born in Heera Mandi, Lahore's famous red-light district, Rania is a tour guide by day and a classical singer by night. Despite the worst of humanity every day – her madrassa running father selling her mother's body and beating her sister – Rania remains the 'Troublemaker', unable to give up on her dreams.
When an Indian filmmaker encourages her to enroll in a music contest that can take her to New York, her dreams take flight. But even as she wins the hearts of her listeners, a family secret threatens to bring her life in Heera Mandi back in sharp relief, upending the new life she has built for herself.
From the oppressive walls of religious hypocrisy to the orange jumpsuits of American prisons, Skyfall is a tender, piercing debut that teaches us the strength of human endeavour and our desire for love in a time of hate.
Mashable Pakistan Lab talked to Saba about all the various hats she wears and the journey that resulted in Skyfall.