Roles We Play, The Paperback ? November 16, 2021

Two-thirds of today’s British Pakistani diaspora trace their origins back to Mirpur in Azad Kashmir, a district that saw mass displacement and migration when it was submerged by the waters of a dam built after Partition. Sabba Khan’s debut graphic memoir explores what identity, belonging and memory mean for her and her family against the backdrop of this history.

As a second-generation Azad Kashmiri migrant in East London, Khan paints a vivid snapshot of contemporary British Asian life and investigates the complex shifts experienced by different generations within migrant communities, creating an uplifting and universal story that crosses borders and decades.

Race, gender and class are brought to the forefront in a simple and personal narrative, illuminated by an eloquent minimal style and architectural page design. Khan asks how religion and secularism, tradition and trend, heritage and progression can move toward a common space of love and understanding?

SABBA KHAN is a visual artist, graphic novelist and architectural designer living in Newham, East London. An extract from The Roles We Play was shortlisted by the Myriad First Graphic Novel Competition 2018, and her work-in-progress supported by Jerwood Arts. She designed the cover for the Eisner award-winning graphic anthology Drawing Power and was described by Broken Frontier as ‘one of the true rising stars of UK indie comics’.