Shamal Days (2021) explores the expatriate experience in the Arabian Gulf through the story of Abbas, a middle-aged bachelor who works as the head of editorial at a newspaper in an imagined Gulf country. Set in the 1990s with escalating violence in West Asia serving as backdrop, the novel follows Abbas as he grapples with loneliness and regret—a life punctuated by “ifs and maybes” and the dreariness of the dry and dusty shamal winds. The narrative examines what it’s like living in another country that provides stability and material comforts while simultaneously taking much away from its expatriate residents. The novel has been praised as “a page-turner” that steeps readers in a gripping story of politics, sex, betrayal, secrets and lost dreams, while bringing clarity to many untold histories of the Gulf region.

PRAISES FOR SHAMAL DAYS

‘A magical tale that rings true, set in the Arab lands – a land of stories.’ 

– Benyamin, Author of Goat Days and Jasmine Days, and winner of the JCB Prize for Literature 2018 

‘In this study of aloneness, caused as much by one’s isolation in an unfamiliar land as it is by making a living in the production of news, Sabin Iqbal gives us a history of the Indian in West Asia that I have not encountered in the Indian English novel. It is told with what is rare today – the energy of honesty, and affection for those left outside the news.’ 

– Sumana Roy, Author of Missing and How I Became a Tree 

‘In this coming-to-terms-with-life story, Sabin has, in this condensation of images into words, invited the reader into a behind- and beyond-the-headlines prism of human happenings. Sabin gifts us with a motif: the Shamal – legendary northwesterly wind the book is named after – that presides over the Gulf region where the story is set. 

‘Abbas, our protagonist, is an editor at a small newspaper, the Gulf Mirror. And the publication is the perch from where, with trenchant clarity, he observes and experiences the world. Abbas is just one of the many drawn to a place that is a magnet for those in pursuit of their dreams and opportunities. 

‘Through Abbas, the reader is invited into an excursion into the labyrinths of human striving, seeking and desiring that disrupt the human idyll. He speaks of loving and losing, revealing how choices often yield consequences that reverberate through time, memory and lives. Hope, love, loss, tragedy, decay and death are woven into the mosaic of Sabin’s “potpourri of cultures”. 

‘Shamal Days has been imagined by a thoughtful storyteller who poignantly gestures to our rather bleak age with its soul- consuming but still entrancing stories that sweep through and, somehow, still keep the world dreaming.’ 

– Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor Author of Dust and The Dragonfly Sea, and winner of the 2003 Caine Prize for African Writing 

‘Sabin Iqbal’s Shamal Days immerses the reader in Abbas’s personal and private struggles, playing out against the searing backdrop of the Gulf. Atmospheric and keenly observed, this novel is an intriguing and insightful read.’

– Shashi Tharoor, MP and Author of The Great Indian Novel and winner of the Sahitya Akademi Prize 2019 

‘A page-turner of a novel, Shamal Days steeps the reader in a gripping story of politics, sex, betrayal, secrets and lost dreams. Sabin Iqbal brings clarity to many untold histories of the Gulf and the region’s shifting fortunes over many years, while personal alliances and intimacies hauntingly play out against the scenario of the newspaper world inhabited by his characters.’ 

– Margaret Busby Chair, Booker Prize jury 2020