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weaving. as the novel proceeds, carpets
eventually become magical vehicles of
the family’s escape; one among other
ironic twists that populate the narrative.
threaded through is the sub-plot of his
father’s Maoist links, an increasing
liability as china distances itself from
the local communist networks. the
family is forced to flee to Pakistan
following an attempted coup and later
once the Soviet invasion plunges kabul
into further political turmoil.
for most of the world, the best-
known work of afghan english litera-
ture has been khaled Hosseini’s Kite
Runner, which also focused on a young
boy in 1970s afghanistan. Sadat is full
of warm praise for Hosseini, whose own
literary stardom offered hope for writers
like himself, but he was conscious of
avoiding the image of afghanistan as a
war-wracked country of barbaric people.
“I have a problem with writers who
focus on the clichés and tropes,” says
Sadat, who counts James Baldwin, kiran
desai and aravind adiga among the
writers he admires. “afghan literature in
the US shows women as subservient and
victims of abuse. Men are fundamental-
ists. there is hatred towards infidels. Of
course, that’s true, but if all the books
are like that, then that’s a problem. I do
show some of that too. But I show the
good, bad and ugly. I show the nuanced
side of afghanistan.”
there are the baroque descriptions of
foods and festivals, police violence and
social stigmas. But also scenes of alcohol
induced encounters, sexual advances
made by women, and the playful marital
dynamic between kanishka’s parents.
“I feel that in order to tell a bigger truth
you need to challenge assumptions and
propaganda,” he says. “If I do this clichémaybe it will connect with an editor,
but do I want to sell out? Or do I want to
regret doing that later on?”
editors were sceptical about the
work, he claims. One hoped it could
have been more in the vein of Call Me
By Your Name, the andré aciman novel
featuring a summer romance between
two young men in Italy.
It took several years and 450 rejec-
tions from literary agents before this
novel found its way to the Indian
agent kanishka Gupta on Sadat’s 451st
attempt. “I thought I had broken a
record,” he says. But he found someone
else had 471.
Neither the literary road nor the
personal journey was ever simple. Sadat
spent a year in kabul in 2012, first as
a development consultant, later as an
assistant professor at the american
University, where he galvanised a
nascent queer rights movement. that
propelled him into the cross-hairs of the
administration and forced him to leave
the country, where homosexuality still
remains a capital offence. Shortly after,
in august 2013, he came out publicly in
a post on facebook, an act of snapping
open the closet door that unleashed a
firestorm both in afghanistan and the
diaspora community in america. He
received death threats, and his father
even asked him to tell the media it had
all been a joke. “coming out for most
people is the end of internal turmoil and
then they are done,” he says. “for me, I
ended an internal war only to start an
interpersonal and societal level war.”
But things have since settled, and
living publicly as a gay man has been
worthwhile, he says. Now he is work-
ing on his memoir, and a second novel,
whilst continuing to support his causes
as an activist. His activism also informed
this novel, both in its content and its
intent. “throughout history you see
how novels have acted as an agent for
social change,” he says. “If I want to be
accepted, if I want to help people like
me, I thought I can write this incredible
novel... Maybe this book can do what
Brokeback did in terms of changing at-
titudes of mainstream heterosexuals.” nsaurabh singh