Shelf Reflection: Omar Sakr

Shelf Reflection is a monthly series where we explore the bookshelves and reading habits of our featured First Book Club authors.

This month’s reflection is from Omar Sakr, whose debut novel Son of Sin (Affirm Press) is a fierce and fantastic force that illuminates the bonds that bind families together as well as what can break them. Stay tuned for more on our website and podcast later in the month!

What are you currently reading?

I am currently reading Brothers and Others In Arms: The Making of Love and War in Israeli Combat Units by Danny Kaplan, an Israeli professor of sociology and anthropology. Through interviews it explores the lives of gay and bisexual Israeli veterans, and I came across it by accident. I had tagged along with my father-in-law as he visited his friend, an older gay man who lives in a council flat in Kings Cross; his unit was a chaotic blur of art and books and plants. This book was on top of a pile of junk, I flicked it open and was immediately grabbed by a chapter title, ‘Shaul: Drag in the Heart of Beirut’. I am bisexual and Lebanese, so of course I started reading it right away. I have been haunted by the horrors described within it since.

What kind of reader are you?

I have ADHD so it should come as no surprise that I always have several books going at the same time. I am currently reading The Wild Fox of Yemen by Threa Almontaser, The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez, and The Empire’s Ruins by Brian Staveley. I read widely, from literary fiction and poetry to fantasy, science fiction, and comics. I tend to read the former slowly, just because I see it as work and will only read it during the day when I typically have much less time; I read a lot more fantasy because I read it before bed every night for fun.

I tend to read literary fiction and poetry slowly, just because I see it as work and will only read it during the day; I read fantasy before bed every night for fun.

What does your book collection look like?

I do not organise my bookshelf by colour or alphabet, etc. If there’s a series then I will put those books together but that’s the limit of my organising. I simply do not care enough otherwise.

What’s one book you found critical to the writing of your own book?

I mean, every book I’ve read has been critical to my writing and influenced me in ways I don’t recognise and can only guess at. The same is true of all the language I’ve perceived; from Arabic to Turkish to English, from pop music to Quranic recital, from Twitter to gifs and emojis. An essay I enjoyed very much and thought about a great deal with respect to my book is ‘The Problem of Neoliberal Realism in Contemporary Fiction’ by Madeline ffitch. It really helped me to articulate what I was writing against.

What book/s are you constantly recommending other people read?

Orientalism by Edward Said. Or anything by Mahmoud Darwish. You can’t go wrong there.

Every book I’ve read has been critical to my writing and influenced me in ways I don’t recognise and can only guess at.

If you had to pick one book to live in for the rest of your life, which would it be?

Every version of the endless Arabian Nights. To have a woman tell my story in order to save lives, to feel the fullness and splendour of the world—who could ask for more?

What’s next for you?

I am finalising my third poetry collection, Non-Essential Work (2023), which will be out next year with UQP. But nothing is on my mind or excites me as much as the impending birth of my firstborn child, inshallah.

Son of Sin is available now from your local independent bookseller.