“Either people say you need to produce another queer book, or they say are you really going to write another gay novel?” “There were no expectations about what I would produce.” Now, having published a successful debut novel he feels the pressure. “Some days I wish I’d gone down the Kafka route and kept everything in a drawer for someone to publish when I die, but that’s more from a creative perspective.” Writing Guapa, he says, was like an apprenticeship. Except this one did, despite the label, or maybe because of it – he doesn’t know. International gay literature, the category publishers ascribe to his beautifully nuanced depiction of a young Arab man feeling for an identity between the boundaries, doesn’t normally sell. He’s a private person, he says, and the book’s success thrust him on to a stage he never solicited. When I ask Saleem Haddad whether he would ever take back publishing Guapa, the novel that garnered critical acclaim and established his credentials as a writer, he pauses and considers. Post-production and art direction by Reema
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