Dear All,

The aspiring writer’s dream is to be discovered at an early age, to write a novel that is an immediate bestseller and a publishing sensation; also, to become commercially successful – rich as well as famous.

Like many journalists from the age of the print media, I had long nursed the ambition to become a writer. But like so many of my generation I was caught up in the day-to-day demands of news coverage, editing, production etc. A few months ago, I finally published the novel I had started more than two decades ago.

Why did I bother to do this? I was over 60 and retired, and no agent or publisher had expressed any interest at all in the work when I pitched it to them. Even friends and family I asked to look at the manuscript never really got around to doing that. It was all fairly demoralising but I was sustained by the positive feedback from two people who actually read the book and told me that it mattered. Plus, I was stubborn enough to believe that this was a story worth telling.

Initially, I didn’t quite know what the story was – just that the central character was called Akbar and that somehow, he would incur the wrath of the powers-that-be and that somehow his life would be disrupted. I knew what happened to him would be very far from the normalcy of his everyday life and would be completely unexpected and new. Despite my own authorial ignorance, somehow the story fell into place: Akbar’s life was changed by the way the media covered the dismissal of a political government. It became a story of media manipulation and political engineering in 1990s Pakistan.

When yet another political government was ousted a couple of years ago, I decided that Akbar’s story needed to be out there as it was relevant. So I made some key decisions: to self-publish and to publish in Pakistan. The latter decision released me from the burden of having to translate phrases and ‘explain’ things to outsiders in the manner of a tourist guide. I also dispensed with italics for non-English words and phrases. My publishers (Moringa) were supportive in production but when it came to marketing, distribution, promotion etc I was on my own because this was my own project. Here too, things fell into place starting with a book launch at OUP’s Islamabad Literature Festival. Then, Dawn’s Sunday paper EOS published excerpts from the novel and a series of other book events followed in various cities and somehow Akbar’s story was out there – his world existed, his home, family, office, colleagues were all there in Akbar in Wonderland.

When yet another political government was ousted a couple of years ago, I decided Akbar’s story needed to be out there as it was relevant. So I made some key decisions: to self-publish and to publish in Pakistan.

What has been really thrilling is feedback from readers. It’s fascinating to see what strikes them, amuses them, moves them. With journalist colleagues, there’s been the guessing game of which real life journalist various characters might have been based upon (no comment). With other readers, very different things have resonated with them. It’s been a delight to hear how readers have responded to the novel.

I was riddled with insecurities about this project and I often asked myself if I should have been so self-indulgent as to publish a book that possibly nobody would want to read or be able to finish. But I persevered and despite the initial sense of imposter syndrome I experienced when being asked to sign copies, I began to enjoy the fact that Akbar’s story now existed in the public domain and wasn’t confined to pages in a drawer or a thought in my head. And that’s why it was so wonderfully exciting to hear last week that Akbar in Wonderland had been shortlisted for the Karachi Literature Festival’s English fiction prize.

Feedback from readers was fabulous but to hear that the book had been selected from many entries to be on a shortlist of four was a huge morale booster (especially since that list contained such seasoned authors as Bina Shah and Omar Shahid Hamid).

So even though I didn’t turn out to be a young prodigy or take the international literary scene by storm as I may have aspired to when younger, I am just so grateful that Akbar in Wonderland exists and it has given some people both enjoyment and food for thought. And I am very grateful to those two early readers, Maniza Naqvi and Charlotte Breese, for helping me to stay the course and for encouraging me to stick with Akbar and his story.

Shortlisted for the KLF Fiction prize… that definitely counts as one of the highlights of my new life as a novelist (or a literary imposter)!

Best wishes

Umber Khairi