Osman Haneef: 'The research for the novel was a tool to create an authentic world that did justice to the challenges of the socio-political realities in Pakistan'
BY Emily Powter-Robinson
17th Jan 2023
Osman Haneef studied on our Writing Your Novel course (six months) in London in 2016. We discussed the inspiration behind his legal thriller Blasphemy: The Trial of Danesh Masih published by Readomania (published in Pakistan by Reverie Publishers as The Verdict), the research involved with writing such a personal novel and shared his advice for aspiring authors.
You took our Writing Your Novel – Six Months in 2016. How did your time studying with us impact your writing journey?
The course was a pivotal moment in my writing journey.
Most creative writing courses help writers develop their writing without any thought of publication or commercial success. This course was different; its goal was to transform us all into published authors. It made us focus on writing something that the industry would actually want to publish (and readers would want to read).
The workshop and instructor feedback was invaluable in not only highlighting problems but also suggesting strategies to tackle them. For instance, I struggled with the opening scene of the novel. I needed it to hint at the serious conflict later in the book, foreshadow a death, and yet not be too melodramatic. My instructor, Lisa O’Donnell, suggested writing the scene as a newspaper report. I immediately read a couple of books that opened with a news story, and then wrote a draft that became the basis for my first chapter. This was one of many examples of how the course influenced my writing.
Many of our students find lifelong writing friends on our courses. Are you still in touch with anyone you met during the course?
A writing course can certainly help a writer find a community of aspiring authors and alpha readers who support each other. My coursemates were gifted writers who were extremely generous with their feedback. Writing is a lonely profession so it’s nice to have a few friends on the journey.
Your novel Blasphemy: The Trial of Danesh Masih was published by Readomania, an independent publishing house. It’s a legal thriller which sees a Christian boy in Pakistan accused of blasphemy―a crime punishable by death. After many years abroad, a young lawyer returns to Pakistan to take the boy’s defence. Can you tell us a bit more about the novel and the inspiration behind it?
Many years ago, I came across the Salamat Masih case, where a clearly innocent boy was persecuted for defiling a mosque. The judge never knew what was written because to repeat the statement would have been blasphemous. There was never any physical evidence recovered because to leave it there would have been blasphemous. Some of the witnesses to the boy writing on the mosque wall were illiterate. It was the most kafkaesque case imaginable.
Later, when I was writing the novel, my mind kept wandering back to Masih’s case. It didn’t even fit with the story I had written up to that point but it didn’t matter. Sometimes writing feels like an act of divination where the conjured characters tell the author what happens next rather than the author planning out what to write. In the end, I couldn’t write anything else.
What was the process like writing your first novel?
I had many of the common creative struggles that an author encounters when writing a novel. There are periods where you aren’t sure if you’re writing anything worth reading.
I have read reports that show most people write three novels on average before they publish their debut novel. This is technically my first novel but I rewrote it, and changed it so many times that I probably wrote a few others in draft form that are lost forever.
The feeling of being lost and uncertain about where the novel was going was amplified by writing as a discovery writer who didn’t know how the story would end. I kept changing the story as I wrote it, and the process felt never-ending. A teacher once told me that the problem with young writers is that they are changing faster than they can write a novel. If you start a novel at 20 and finish a draft by 23, you've probably changed so much that you no longer have the same ideas, and, in your next rewrite, will want to change the entire story.
Can you tell us a bit about the research that went into your novel?
Although the characters and most events are fictional (or have been fictionalised), it is a deeply personal novel. Much of my lived experience ended up in the novel. My parents are from Balochistan so many of my summers and holidays were spent in Quetta. The sense of the place I captured through those trips, the places I visited, and the people I met. I have seen the effects of dementia in people I know so I was able to capture it in my novel, but I also borrowed from other sources. I researched almost every little thing that was outside my own experience. For example, what happens when your jaw breaks? I looked it up. I used research to help build a world and characters, which readers would accept as authentic.
For the courtroom scenes, I visited the courthouse in Quetta, and watched some of the proceedings. I spoke with human rights lawyers about their experiences in Pakistan. I read the records for different blasphemy cases. I had experienced lawyers review certain facts and proceedings. A leading human rights lawyer in Pakistan actually commented that he had seen everything imaginable take place in a Pakistani courtroom so I shouldn't worry too much about it being realistic.
For the extremist characters, I read extremist literature and watched videos of religious radicals to understand how they justified their positions. I have been to mosques where radical sermons were given, and I have spoken with people who practice an extreme ideology. I combined that with what I knew from all the research on radicalization and extremism I read in university to develop the underlying psychology of the radical characters.
What I found most interesting in all the research is how education is not a cure for an intolerant ideology, and intolerance is a disease that is not limited to a single faith, ideology, or country. As there are also many more moderate voices in the world, which we encounter more regularly, I included their voices in the novel as well. This isn't a novel that is against a faith or a country. Instead, the novel deals with how laws and ideology can be perverted to target the innocent.
Do you have any advice to share with the aspiring authors reading this, perhaps those who are thinking of applying to a writing course or getting ready to submit to literary agents?
I would recommend a writing course for anyone interested in being published and read by someone other than their mother. Not only will it help you hone your craft but it will also help you approach literary agents who will then shepherd your book through the publishing world.
When I was shopping the manuscript around in London, a prominent literary agent told me to make the story about something other than blasphemy because after Salman Rushdie, no one wanted to touch the subject. I explained that my book centres on a blasphemy trial but doesn’t commit blasphemy. The agent responded that most people in an angry mob don’t actually read books by the author they are targeting. I am sure plenty of agents felt this way but he was the only one to say it.
I was confronted with the option of changing the very nature of the trial at the heart of the novel. I felt the story needed to be told and that changing it would force me to lose something irreplaceable. I turned my attention to finding a literary agent in India, and was lucky to find Sherna Khambatta. We received some offers, and I remember feeling uncertain about traditionally publishing the novel with newer publishers in South Asia. I spoke to author Moni Mohsin (The Diary of a Social Butterfly and The Impeccable Integrity of Ruby R), and she told me to not worry about who publishes the work because a novel has a way of finding its audience.
I took her advice and I have been delighted with my publishers and they have been wonderful champions of my work.
You’ve recently won the UBL Literary award for Best Debut (English) amongst other prizes. How does it feel to have gained this recognition?
I was fortunate that both my publisher in India, Readomania, and my publisher in Pakistan, Reverie Publishers, submitted the novel for multiple awards. I have been moved by the incredibly positive response. Blasphemy: The Trial of Danesh Masih was shortlisted for awards in both India and Pakistan, and it won the UBL Literary Award for Best Debut. Beyond the critical acclaim, I have been touched by the supportive messages from students, academics, researchers, and other writers who have shared how the book has motivated them to write about the blasphemy laws and the need for change.
Which books are you most looking forward to reading in 2023?
There are a number of books I am excited about reading in the new year:
1) Jacqueline Sutherland’s Twin Truths. She is a friend and phenomenal author of thrillers. Twin Truths is her second novel and it promises to be even better than her first, The Coffin Club.
2) Leigh Bardugo’s Hell Bent, which is the next novel in her Ninth House series. I loved reading Leigh’s fantastical story about ghosts, demons, and magic set at Yale University and can’t wait for the sequel.
3) Ore Agbaje-Williams’s The Three of Us sounds intriguing. Set over the course of a single day, the novel tackles how a husband, wife and a best friend toe the lines of compromise and betrayal.
4) Salman Rushdie's Victory City, set in 14th-century southern India, is about a nine-year old girl who becomes a vessel for the goddess Parvati and recreates the foundations of a utopian society.
Finally, what’s next for your writing journey?
I am working on a new novel set mostly in Pakistan about a group of teenage friends who investigate a murder but discover more about themselves and the lies that we tell ourselves in the process. It is an attempt at an anti-mystery novel that subverts many of the tropes of the genre.
I have also been working on short stories, a collaborative poem, a screenplay, and some non-fiction.
Blasphemy: The Trial of Danesh Masih is available to buy here.
Find out more about our Writing Your Novel course here. Applications are open for both the online and London courses.