Rebecca is excited to speak with Pakistani-Canadian author Saad Omar Khan about his debut novel, Drinking the Ocean, published by Wolsak & Wynn in 2025. Saad was born in the United Arab Emirates to Pakistani parents and lived in the Philippines, Hong Kong, and South Korea before immigrating to Canada. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto and the London School of Economics and has completed a certificate in Creative Writing from the School of Continuing Studies at the University of Toronto. His short fiction has appeared in Best Canadian Stories 2025 and other publications. Saad lives outside of Toronto and is currently working on his second novel.

Books mentioned:

Ley Lines by Tim Welsh
Stella Maris; Blood Meridian; All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin
The Sheltering Sky; Travels: Collected Writing 1950-1993; The Stories of Paul Bowles by Paul Bowles
Abdullah Ansari of Herat: An Early Sufi Master by A.G. Farhadi

https://www.instagram.com/s.omar.khan/

https://bookstore.wolsakandwynn.ca/collections/all/products/drinking-the-ocean

https://www.biblioasis.com/shop/fiction/short-fiction/best-canadian-stories-2025/

https://augursociety.org/