LE PORTRAIT MAGAZINE MARCH-SEPTEMBER ISSUE | Page 44

as a series of short stories about his protagonist’s childhood friends
that Akram’s War began life. One of these – Adrian, son of a local “Paki
basher” – goes on to serve alongside Akram in Afghanistan. But parkawearing playground runt Craig Male also has an important role, opening
Akram’s eyes to the wildlife occupying the edgelands of their home
town.

There is deep affection in the book for the Black Country’s industrial
landscape, although Safdar says he was indifferent to his surroundings as
a child – “Growing up there, I didn’t see the beauty of it” – and credits
his awakening to the work of the Birmingham-born
photographer Richard Billingham, a friend.
As his stories accumulated, Safdar found himself in search of a form that
might contain them. The solution – inspired in part by Richard
Flanagan’sThe Narrow Road to the Deep North – emerged as a frame
narrative, constructed around Akram’s encounter with the significantly
named Grace, a troubled prostitute who has been cruelly separated from
her beloved daughter. (Safdar, a twice-married father of three, is a
former campaigner for Fathers4Justice, although this is a subject – along
with his own experience of the military – about which he politely
declines to talk.)
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Despite the “super-timely” nature of his novel, Safdar wasn’t confident
of publication. He recalls how he submitted his manuscript to the agent
Anna Webber one Friday in 2014 and received the promise that it would
be read “in the next three months”. On the Monday morning, his phone
rang. “I was incredibly jammy,” he says, eyes lighting up. “It was very,
very nice.”
Nevertheless, Safdar’s editor was keen that he give the novel a happier
ending – the right call, Safdar now admits. “I think you have to listen to
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