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Sci-fi scribe Ghufran Hussain is taking readers into a dimension of dystopia with her first-ever book to be released next month.
Isotope, set to be released on June 5 on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, tells the story of 20-year-old Ava Williams who goes into an alternate dimension, learning to survive in it, and later realises the Earth she returns to has changed quite significantly.
“I’m excited to share my very first book with my readers,” the 20-year-old Bahraini writer and medical student told GulfWeekly.
“To be honest, I have always had a wild imagination that can create multiple worlds in my head. Being able to put out my wild thoughts in the form of a story is quite unbelievable.
“The fact that I’m able to make my readers experience the thought process in my head is simply amazing.”
Ghufran teamed up with published author Fatima Saleem, who is helping her edit the book, as well as Teesha Suvarna, who designed its cover, which will also be released in an eBook format.
“Isotope is no doubt going to be a stunner for readers of sci-fi,” Fatima added. “Editing it was a pleasure and Ghufran is easily one of the best people to work with. I look forward to working more with her in the future and wish her all the best for her debut release!”
Ghufran already has a sequel to the 200-page Isotope planned, and she hopes to turn it into a series.
The former Indian School Bahrain student has been writing stories since she was 15, but hasn’t published any of her works. In addition to science fiction, she also pens other fictional pieces like crime thrillers, as well as poetry, which she started writing when she was just six years old.
Some of her favourite sci-fi books include American Gods, The Time Traveller’s Wife and Maze Runner, though Khaled Hosseini is her favourite author of all time.
When she isn’t busy penning stories, Ghufran is a full-time medical student at the Iran University of Medical Sciences.
Finishing Isotope did not stop the eager writer and she has already penned Isla – a crime thriller short story which tells the story of the eponymous 17-year-old girl who has been trapped in her own house by her mother.
“Writing isn’t an easy thing, plotting a story outline, writing, editing, formatting – it’s a challenging process and with every story I write I learn more about it,” she added.
“But I love doing it! Every story is a new experience. I get to learn more about a particular genre and how the human mind is capable of plotting infinite endings to the same story.”
Isotope is set to be released on June 5. For details, follow @ghufranistic on Instagram.
