PSYCHORAAG
The debut novel Suhayl Saadi
Published in Hardback (29 April 2004)
By Black & White Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1845020103
Guide Price: £12.99
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It's midnight in Glasgow as DJ Zaf presents Radio Chaandni's last ever programme. The playlist features songs from the soundtracks of romantic old Indian films, Beatles' and Stranglers' classics and the music of Kula Shaker and ADF (Asian Dub Foundation). As his broadcast goes out, Zaf's thoughts and memories unfold - a battered black Ford Popular car toiling its way from Lahore to Britain; a shiny blue Kawasaki motorbike flashing through the Scottish countryside; an ex-lover who blames him for all the crap in her life; a f***-off-we're-finished note from his white girlfriend; a mother who abandons all that's safe and familiar to be with the man she loves; a father who doesn't recognise his son; the once-exotic sight of a sari swishing along the cold wet streets of Govan; a culture defined by something as banal as plastic hankie-box holders decorated with roses; a copper mirror in a singing cave…

Spanning generations, continents and cultures, Psychoraag will take you on a whirlwind journey into a cosmic world where the real and the surreal dissolve and the past and the present segue into each other.

Suhayl Saadi triumphantly blends standard English with a distinctive urban Scots peppered with Urdu. It's a mythic yet utterly modern tale that explores what it means to be Asian in Britain in the twenty-first century. A unique experience for those in search of something different. The Scottish Sunday Herald describes Pyschoraag as "Midnight's Children-meets-Trainspotting".

ABOUT SUHAYL SAADI

Born in Yorkshire but now living in Glasgow, Suhayl Saadi is a novelist, poet and award-winning short-story writer. His collection of short stories, 'The Burning Mirror', received wide critical acclaim - with one story from it winning second prize in the Macallan/Scotland on Sunday short story competition in 1999. In addition, 'The Burning Mirror' was shortlisted for the Saltire First Book Prize and was widely hailed as an eclectic masterpiece.

Suhayl Saadi has worked extensively on BBC radio and with The British Council and the Scottish Arts Council and has performed readings of his work on the European mainland, in various cities of South Asia and in New York. A Millennium Commission Award winner, he also manages to find time to work as a physician in Glasgow.