Saba Imtiaz is the author of the novel Karachi, You’re Killing Me! which was adapted into the Indian film Noor (2017), starring Sonakshi Sinha. A freelance writer and researcher, Saba writes about culture, food, religion, and urban life, and has reported features from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Jordan, and Lebanon. The co-host and co-producer of the ‘Notes on a Scandal’ podcast. Saba lives in the Netherlands.
Tooba Masood-Khan is a freelance journalist based in Karachi, Pakistan, with over thirteen years of experience. Her reporting has been featured on the BBC, fiftytwo, NPR, Dawn, HuffPost India, and Samaa. She was shortlisted for the Zeenat Haroon Rashid writing prize in 2020.
Their latest release, Society Girl: A Tale of Sex, Lies, and Scandal – co-written with Saba Imtiaz – is a wonderfully fascinating journey into ’70s Karachi high society – a captivating true crime drama that will have you gripped till the very last page. We recently carried out a candid interview with them:
1. Best writing advice you have received?
Saba: To read everything.
Tooba: Sounds cliché but my dad always told me to not judge a book by its cover – in his defence, he was trying to get me to read Freedom at Midnight when I was 12. I was more interested in Lord of Rings.
2. Where do you write? What’s your favourite spot?
Saba: I wrote most of Society Girl at a cafe in Delft in the mornings, sitting on one end of a half-occupied large communal table, with a very distracting view of people cycling past.
Tooba: I don’t have a favourite spot. As long as I am comfortable and have that intro – I am set.
3. Which word or phrase do you most overuse?
Saba: Bas, duffer, and literally.
Tooba: Exactly. Like. Whatever. Yes, I speak like I am still in high school.
4. Which author or book has influenced your work the most?
Saba: I am fairly certain the character of Jessica Fletcher (played by Angela Lansbury) from ‘Murder She Wrote’ was one of my strongest visual influences of writing when I was younger – I desperately wanted to be at a typewriter at the end of the day, typing up my work. (Not so sure about the solving crimes bit).
Tooba: There is no one author for me – the big three are: Albert Camus/The Stranger, Sylvia Plath/Bell Jar and Gabriel García Márquez/ One Hundred Years of Solitude. I have been obsessed with them since I was a teenager and even now I find myself going back to their work for inspiration and comfort.
5. Apart from what you do today, what do you wish you could do or pursue as a career?
Saba: Win at the Crystal Maze
Tooba: Hmm…maybe a private eye/detective given my keen stalking stills or a standup comic
6. A fun fact about yourself that readers might not know…
Saba: I tried to invent a recipe when I was younger involving layers of Frosties and honey and called it ‘Honey Crunch’. As you can see, I opted for a different career.
Tooba: I have five cats that drive me insane on a daily basis.
7. What is your greatest fear?
Saba: Rats. Falling into a canal. (Or falling into a canal trying to escape a rat.)
Tooba: Cockroaches, heights and something happening to my fur babies
8. What is your guilty pleasure?
Saba: Spending all night watching television shows. I actually have no shame about this but I feel marginally guilty that my body takes much longer to recover from an all-nighter than it did when I was sixteen.
Tooba: Binge-watching true crime shows, trash TV – I have zero standards when it comes to both.
9. Who would be the guests at your perfect dinner party?
Saba: Shahnaz Gul, Mustafa Zaidi, Shashi Kapoor, and Fran Leibowitz.
Tooba: Mustafa Zaidi, Shahnaz Gul, my dad and bff Rameez
10. Why should everyone read Society Girl?
Saba: What other book has poetry, a murder mystery, and a description of teddy boys?
Tooba: Sex, drugs, drama and murder – why wouldn’t you want to read it?! It kept us hooked for five years…once you read it you’ll be going down many many rabbit holes.
Society Girl: A Tale of Sex, Lies and Scandal
by Saba Imtiaz and Tooba Masood
Society Girl: A Tale of Sex, Lies, and Scandal
On an October morning in 1970, phones began ringing all over Karachi. The charismatic young poet and former civil servant Mustafa Zaidi had been found dead in his bedroom. He wasn’t alone: Shahnaz Gul, a stunningly beautiful, married socialite, with whom Zaidi had been having an affair, was lying unconscious in the next room, seemingly drugged.
The ensuing scandal would shake Pakistani…
