BLASPHEMY: THE TRIAL OF DANESH MASIH (2020) & THE VERDICT (2021)

WINNER of the UBL LITERARY AWARD for best DEBUT FICTION (ENGLISH) 2022

SHORTLISTED for the PFC-VOW BOOK AWARDS 2021 and the KLF GETZ PHARMA PRIZE FOR FICTION 2022

PUBLISHED BY READOMANIA AND AVAILABLE TO PURCHASE IN PRINT AND AS AN EBOOK AROUND THE WORLD. AVAILABLE IN BOOKSTORES AND ON AUDIBLE IN INDIA.

THE PAKISTAN EDITION, THE VERDICT, IS PUBLISHED BY REVERIE PUBLISHERS AND AVAILABLE THROUGH THEIR WEBSITE AND AT LIBERTY BOOKS STORES ACROSS PAKISTAN.

A Christian boy in Pakistan is accused of blasphemy―a crime punishable by death. Haunted by a tragic past, a young lawyer named Sikander Ghaznavi returns to Pakistan after many years abroad, and takes on the defence of the boy. Out of his depth, Sikander reaches out to the sharpest human rights lawyer he knows―the woman he has loved for years, but now another man’s wife. As they deal with their unresolved feelings, the lawyers confront a corrupt system, a town turned against them, and a prophecy that predicts their death.

Will they save the boy? Or will the city of Quetta, its prejudice inflamed by religious extremists, consume them and deliver them to a deadly fate?

Critical praise for Blasphemy: The Trial of Danesh Masih & The Verdict

“In this novel of quiet creeping horror, Haneef forces us to confront the supreme evil that lies at the heart of Pakistan’s blasphemy law.”

— Aatish Taseer, journalist and author

"You have to remind yourself that Osman's novel and the characters he conjures are fictional because they are convincingly real, so much so, that their words stay with you long after you have put down the book."

— Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Academy Award winning filmmaker

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