‘It’s an impossible blend of Kelman, Toni Davidson and Rushdie. There is a rhythm and blending of lanuages that is uniquely Scots-Asian . . . I am not sure we’ve ever heard such a deft British-asian voice before.’ – Chris Dolan
‘[Saadi writes with] an economy of style and sharply observed details which evoke urban Scotland as vividly as rural Pakistan, and a humour as bitter as the dusty earth.’ – Sheena Mackay
Shortlisted for the Saltire Society Scottish First Book of the Year Award
The Burning Mirror is a mixture of the steamy and the spiritual, the subtle, the baroque and the brutal. The canvas is broad – everything from Glaswegian Asian gangsta stories to themes drawn from various Trans-Mediterranean cultures, from the philosophising of a spirit trapped in a bottle to the everyday tribulations of a Catholic evangelist, from a searing portrayal of brick-making villages in Pakistan to a Pointillist love story set amidst the late twentieth-century Balkan wars. A young man’s search across the Himalayan peaks for an incarnation of mystical love, a cycle of Celtic stories stretching across decades, Lata Mangeshkar and the night river in a Govan kebab house, lovers murdering their rivals . . .
The Burning Mirror reflects that which is human and that which is not; it is both subjective and objective, traditional and revolutionary. With consummate skill and intense physicality, Saadi experiments with form as well as content. This is powerful and imaginative new fiction.
Suhayl Saadi was born in Yorkshire in 1961 of Afghan-Pakistani parents, and grew up in Glasgow, becoming a medical doctor. He is a widely published prize-winning novelist, poet and short story writer.
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