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A Most Anticipated Read: The Millions, them, SheReads, Daily Kos, Debutiful, Mizna, and LGBTQ ReadsA Publishers Weekly Writer to Watch ""An exhilarating debut from a writer whose work I'll always want to read."" --R.O. KWON In this wry, provocative debut, two gay Afghan men--cast out of their respective countries of birth by circumstances beyond their control--collide in Istanbul, a city that will test their willingness to sacrifice everything for the ones they love. When Delbar--a hapless twenty-something with dreams of becoming a drag queen--is spectacularly outed, he flees the insular immigrant-dense suburbs of Washington, DC to seek refuge with his sympathetic aunt in Istanbul. There, he discovers a vibrant community of dissidents, sex workers, activists, poets, and heretics. Among them are Leif and his boyfriend, Mansur, with whom Delbar quickly develops a blazing fascination. But Mansur also nurses a wounded heart, having left his own family, and his first love, behind in Iran. This time, Mansur's learned not to dream bigger than his own survival. He'll keep a low profile, work hard to send money back, and remain faithful to Leif--at least until his refugee status is granted.When riot police descend on attendees of the annual Istanbul Pride march, Mansur and Delbar are thrust into dangerous proximity. With the country surging into authoritarianism, each person must ask themselves: what constitutes a life well-lived, and how high is the price of freedom? Told through the alternating viewpoints of Delbar and Mansur, Bobuq Sayed's debut is a story of borders and boundaries transgressed, and a seductive exploration of what it means to make a home at the margins of society. At once an immigrant family saga, a thwarted love story, and a searing portrait of politics made intimately personal, No God but Us is an ambitious introduction to a bold new voice. ""A new kind of novel, with vast geographies of nation and heart."" --SARAH SCHULMAN ""This is a story alive to contradiction--ferocious in its longing, unsparing in its honesty, and deeply attuned to the ways love and belief survive their own undoing."" --GARRARD CONLEY ""I feel lucky to count this story among my literary kin."" --ARIA ABER

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Bobuq Sayed is the author of A Brief History of Australian Terror and the novel No God but Us. They were a 2022-23 Steinbeck fellow at San José State University, a Lambda Literary scholar, and an award-winning James A. Michener fellow in the University of Miami's MFA program. Bobuq currently lives in New York City. Shawn K. Jain is a Harvard University/Moscow Art Theater School/A.R.T. Institute graduate. Shawn has TV credits for shows on Apple TV+, CBS, HBO Max, Amazon Prime, Showtime, and Peacock, and he has narrated audiobooks for Penguin Random House, Hachette, Bloomsbury, HarperCollins, Epic!, Blackstone, GraphicAudio, and HQN. Shawn can be heard on many episodes of the romcom podcast Meet Cute and on Atypical Artists' audio dramas Life with LEO(h) and Maxine Miles. He also voiced a migrant worker for UCLA Labor Center's Re: Work Radio podcast. Sean Daniels, artistic director of Arizona Theatre Company, said he finds ""few actors funnier in the world than Shawn."" Prior to saying yes to his calling to be an actor, Shawn was a communications and marketing professional who did important work with organizations like the ACLU and the International AIDS Society. Born and raised in Northern California, Shawn received his BA from UC Berkeley. In addition to acting, Shawn has several pilots in development. Shawn writes stories that deal with the brokenness of people and society (even when things seem glittering and beautiful on the outside). Shawn is queer and of South Asian descent. A native English speaker who is fluent in Spanish and conversant in Hindi, Shawn can do British, Farsi, Hindi, Indian, Urdu, and Arabic accents. Born and raised in Dallas, Texas, to parents who journeyed from India to the United States, Nas Mehdi is an American actor of Indian descent who also has Turkish, Persian, and Afghan heritage. Inspired by his love of films, he pursued the performing arts early on in his adolescent years via theater/speech tournaments and, subsequently, as a lead actor in professional theatre in Dallas. He carried that passion into television, playing numerous guest and recurring guest star roles in shows such as Graves (Epix) opposite Nick Nolte, 24: Legacy (Fox) opposite Corey Hawkins, Nashville (ABC) opposite Chris Carmack, and Drop Dead Diva (Lifetime) opposite Brooke Elliott, and films such as Focus (Warner Bros.) opposite Will Smith. Coming off the success of narrating Payam Zamani's bestselling novel Crossing The Desert, Nas has also successfully ventured into the world of commercials, including a national network spot with Verizon, and voice-over. Trained at the Groundlings, Upright Citizens Brigade, and the Markland Studio, he regularly performs stand-up comedy in the San Fernando Valley and is on the board of the Classics Theatre Project. He also enjoys beekeeping and not zealously referring to himself in the third person.

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