Awais Khan is author of the exquisitely written Someone Like Her, out now in paperback.
Read five fascinating facts about Awais, one of Pakistan’s most revered authors.
I’m not a one-book-at-a-time person and have several on the go at once. In my thirties, I find that I am drawn towards a variety of genres whereas in my teens, I would exclusively read classics or YA. These days, I am reading Homecoming by Kate Morton, Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton and The Fascination by Essie Fox. Maybe it’s the technologically advanced era we live in, but I love to multi-task and I’ve incorporated that same formula when it comes to reading books. Historical fiction has been a revelation for me. I had no idea it was so very enjoyable.
Despite it being my home city, Lahore is not my favourite. That honour goes to London. It is hard for me to define London in a word or even a sentence. London is a feeling. The moment I step out of Heathrow, I feel my spirits lifting. Maybe it’s the fact that London is the hub of publishing and I absolutely love everything about the industry, or that a lot of my friends are based there, but something about the city is just therapeutic. After the pollution and dullness of Lahore, London is like a breath of fresh air. This feeling is what inspired me to include London in my latest novel Someone Like Her. I wanted to help people see London the way I saw it.
My favourite food is Chicken Biryani, and every bite is pure heaven. It’s a unique blend of ethnic spices that is not always easy to get right, and you have to make sure that you add just the right amount of water to the rice and just the right amount of oil too. In Pakistan, we eat basmati rice, and it’s so slender and fragile that overcooking can ruin it completely and undercooking it … well, nobody like undercooked rice. More than that, biryani is also a symbol of the diversity of flavours of our region and is the kind of food that can bring together the people of South Asia.
I love wearing funky socks. My wardrobe is generally very boring and I don’t like experimenting with too many colours, but wearing colourful socks is my one indulgence. I even stopped wearing plain socks to work. The people who know me will always ask to see the kind of socks I am wearing – it’s kind of become part of my identity. My crazy socks help to lift my spirits and living in a country like Pakistan, we often need that.
Contrary to popular belief, I don’t write much in the privacy of my study, and prefer noisy cafés. For some reason, the noise helps me focus. I wrote Someone Like Her in a very busy café in Lahore called Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. In 2022 I visited it so frequently that the management had a place reserved for me for the hours I spent there, drinking my favourite white chocolate mocha and typing away. The fact that I can focus better in noisy environments was something I discovered while I was in London. Struggling to write in the room I was renting, I went to a busy Starbucks near Russell Square station one day and it was as if a fog had lifted from my mind. Before I knew it, the words flowed.
