Shazaf Fatima Haider is the author of two novels: How It Happened and the recently released A Firefly in the Dark. She has a Master’s in English Literature from the University of Karachi and now lives in London.

What book are you reading these days?

 I’m in-between books. Just finished Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders and am about to start The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson.

What is the one book that you’ve been wanting to read for a long time, but haven’t yet got your hands on it?

Em and the Big Hoom by Jerry Pinto. I am happy to say I just got my hands on it last week and I’m going to dig in the minute my toddler starts sleeping through the night. (This might take a few years.)

What is the one famous/celebrated book that you haven’t read?

Ulysses by James Joyce. I think it is celebrated enough and I am not going to read it. Unless someone else reads it with me. Then we can figure out what the hell it’s all about.

What is the most overrated book?

Wicked by Gregory Maguire. I really hated it. But I love the musical. 

What is the most underrated book?

It’s not underrated by any means, but I wish more people would read John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces. It is something else.

The one novel by a contemporary that you wish you’d written?

The Wildings by Nilanjana Roy. It’s fabulous, it’s funny and, man, is it dramatic! All hail Nilanjana Roy and her Nizamuddin felines!

Mohammed Hanif or Nadeem Aslam?

Mohammed Hanif, because I haven’t yet read Nadeem Aslam.

William S. Burroughs or Hunter S. Thompson?

Neither.

Pablo Picasso or Salvador Dali?

I don’t know that much about Dali. And I just saw a Picasso exhibit at the Tate Modern. So it will be Picasso, I suppose, although I think he was basically a dirty old man.

Alanis Morissette or Pink?

Alanis Morissette, any day of the week.

What is the one novel that should be adapted into film?

I actually would love to see Vaseem Khan’s Baby Ganesh Agency Investigation series be made into a film or series of films. There’s a lot that can be done there, and it’s pretty cinematic the way it’s written. Plus, I’d love to see how they’d include an elephant in the film.

What is the one film based on a novel that should never have been made?

I’m dreading the new Anne of Green Gables. It’s going to be a film, I hear. It can’t possibly live up to the Megan Follows version.   

Karachi Literature Festival or Lahore Literature Festival?

They are vastly different, aren’t they? I’d say the Karachi Literature Festival (KLF) because that’s the city I’m from, but it needs some serious reinvention and must include new voices and faces. The Lahore Literature Festival is excellent in bringing a more diverse set of writers and artists to its forum, but it’s not as awami in its scope as the KLF.

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, May 20th, 2018