Skyfall
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0.99 €/mo for 3 months
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Offer ends on 28 December, 2026.
Skyfall
Narrated by:
Saba Karim Khan
Buy Now for €20.99
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Narrated by:
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Saba Karim Khan
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By:
-
Saba Karim Khan
Summary
Born in Heera Mandi, Lahore’s famous red-light district, Rania is a tour guide by day and a classical singer by night. Despite the worst of humanity every day – her madrassa-running father selling her mother’s body and beating her sister – Rania remains the ‘troublemaker’, unable to give up on her dreams.
When an Indian filmmaker encourages her to enrol in a music contest that can take her to New York, her dreams take flight. But even as she wins the hearts of her listeners, a family secret threatens to bring her life in Heera Mandi back in sharp relief, upending the new life she has built for herself.
From the oppressive walls of religious hypocrisy to the orange jumpsuits of American prisons, Skyfall is a tender, piercing debut that teaches us the strength of human endeavour and our desire for love in a time of hate.©2020 Saba Karim Khan (P)2026 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
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Reviews
Spunky, seventeen-year-old Rania takes us on a riveting journey from the haunting slums of Heera Mandi, Lahore’s famous red-light district, to her escape from her abusive father, through a music contest in America. How she navigates through the dystopian West - and learns to love her beautiful, broken homeland again - takes us on a fast-paced trajectory through this complex novel. A powerful, soulful and timely debut. (Bapsi Sidhwa)
‘Bold and compelling, Skyfall takes us to a place spoken of only in whispers. Khan shows us Lahore and New York as never seen before. In the midst of the 24-hour internet cafes and colorful mahallas of Old Lahore, the protagonist grows up. Khan’s prose will sweep you off your feet. It is lyrical to the point of being magical and shines a light on a section of society that has long been forgotten. Part mystery and part thriller, this is essential reading for every Lahori, or every Pakistani for that matter. Unmissable.’ (Awais Khan)
‘This indelible debut by Saba Karim Khan sings a song of rebellion, bursting with incendiary energy. And that voice! – at once elegiac and growling, whispering and full-throated, it grabs us like an aria sung from a dark street corner. Skyfall’s characters are makers of trouble – of the kinds both good and bad – and we readers are whisked through complex inner lives that bounce between Lahore and New York City, two hardscrabble and hopeful worlds that on these pages meet, finally, as equals. Khan’s elegant novel rings with resistance: that, come what may, though the sky may fall, our words can remain a defiant defence of human frailties in a spiraling world of menacing pieties. Stand with Khan; read this book; find your closed eyes opened.’ – (Miguel Syjuco)
‘Skyfall is a bold, big-hearted debut: at once a deeply political novel concerned with the most pressing global issues of our time, it is also an adventure story, a romance, and a page-turning thriller. Saba Karim Khan has established herself as a writer of immense tenderness and strength.’ (Jake Wolff)
‘Saba Karim Khan’s debut complicates the usual tropes one might expect in a South Asian novel. Rania, the protagonist, is the kind of troublemaker who dreams big and soars high. From Lahore slums to New York City high rises, Rania puts everything on the line to fight against prejudices related to gender, religion, caste, class, and country. A spirited, take-charge heroine for our challenging, complex times.’ (Jenny Bhatt)
‘A breathtaking, daring, and urgent debut novel that delivers a cavalcade of piercing emotional truth about the immigrant experience. Rania is a hero for our times, and her global odyssey illuminates our shared humanity with arresting vision and aplomb. In the mode of Mohsin Hamid and David Mitchell, this is a wise and provocative feat of storytelling that contains multitudes.’ (Gabe Hudson)
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