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o o k r e v i e wBreath of DeathArmed with creativity, imagination,a pen and a degree in medicine,numerous physicians in history havekept us on tenterhooks. There isHarvard Med’s Michael Crichton,who set his mark with ER andJurassic Park; Columbia’s RobinCook did it with Coma; go backfurther and Edinburgh’s Sir ArthurConan Doyle’sSherlockHolmes hassurvivedgenerations andperhaps morecorrectly, thecenturies.In a firstfor AKU, alumand facultymember DrSaad Shafqat,MBBS ’88 hashopped on thephysician-cumthrillerwriter“Arriving at Duke as apostdoctoral researchfellow, he [Hamza]had risen all the wayto become professorof virology, and anacknowledged authorityon viral replication.There was no questionhe was a gifted, highlyanalytical intellect.Evidently, the Prozactoo had workedits magic.”wagon with his Breath of Death. Inless than a week, 200 copies hadflown off the shelves of LibertyBooks, a local chain of book stores,but the jury still remains out onwhether it is the infallible contentor his gregarious personality that ismaking the book tick.“Basically it is like my dailylife at AKU: the premiseis neurological, there’sa very bright medicalstudent – we come acrossbright medical studentsall the time – and thenthe whole daily processof doing rounds, seeingdifficult patients, dealingwith families, breaking badnews,” Dr Saad Shafqatsays on the inspirationSaad Shafqat, MBBS ’88Azfar Farooqibehind his first work of fiction.For a multitasker whoseaverage day has him juggling hisneurology practice – “it’s my breadand butter” – research, teaching,cricket commentaries and roles as afather and husband, when it came towriting fiction, he certainly wasn’tat his disciplined best.“It took a long time. To behonest, I started in something like2005-2006, and wrote it in bits,” hecandidly admits.But if putting the pen downsomewhere finally in 2008-2009was slow, publishing was analtogether tardy ride.“I think in general this wholebusiness of publishing and puttingfiction together just proceeds ata very glacial pace,” hecomments, “Finding apublisher is hard, and once acompany is secured, they tootake their own time.”About his overallexperience with writingfiction, he says he had hisfair share of unease andtrepidation: “For first-timefiction writers it is quiteuphill because you have toproduce a manuscript that isanything between 80,000 and200,000 words, and you haveno idea if anybody is goingto even look at it, forgetabout publishing and gettinga good response.”Breath of Death ispart of a larger seriestitled Chlorophyll,published by WisdomTree in India to promotecontemporary Indian andsubcontinent fiction. •Nadia Jajja,Public Affairs1 3