Drinking the Ocean

May 6, 2025
288 pages | ISBN 978-1-998408-17-7

The day after his thirty-third birthday, Murad spots a familiar face at a crowded intersection in downtown Toronto. Shocked, he stands silently as Sofi, a woman he’d fallen in love with almost a decade ago, walks by holding the hand of a small child. Murad turns and descends the subway steps to return home to his wife as the past washes over him and he is taken back to the first time they met. Moving between Lahore, London and Toronto, Drinking the Ocean is a story of connections lost and found and of the many kinds of love that shape a life, whether familial, romantic or spiritual. As Murad’s and Sofi’s lives touch and separate, we see them encounter challenges with relationships, family and God, and struggle with the complexities facing Muslims in the West. With compassion and elegance, Saad Omar Khan delicately illuminates the arcs of these two haunted lives, moved by fate and by love, as they absorb the impact of their personal spiritual journeys.

Advance Praise

“A beautiful and evocative debut, Drinking the Ocean takes readers on a mesmerizing, multilayered exploration of love rooted in duty, passion and spirituality. The narrative begins with Murad, then shifts to Sofi, gradually weaving their stories together into an intimate, nuanced and provocative journey. Through their intertwining paths, the novel delves deeply into what it means to connect, to love, to hurt and ultimately, to heal.” – Ann Y. K. Choi, author of Kay’s Lucky Coin Variety

“Drinking the Ocean is a profound and thought-provoking book. Set against the rich backdrops of Lahore, Toronto and London, this quietly powerful story meditates on themes of grief, mental illness, faith, family and love. At its heart are Murad and Sofi, two characters whose deep love for one another persists in a complex and uncertain world. With emotional insight and introspective storytelling, Saad Omar Khan has written a captivating debut novel that invites readers to reflect on their own lives and search their own souls.” – Michelle Berry, author Everything Turns Away and Satellite Image

Reviews

Drinking the Ocean by Saad Omar Khan (Renée M. Sgroi, the Miramichi Reader, 08/07/2025)
"Drinking the Ocean offers a rich and pensive journey from which readers will find themselves moved and transformed."

Interviews

“Everything is finite”: Saad Omar Khan on Muslim identity, writing as documentation, and his debut novel, Drinking the Ocean (Steven W. Beattie, That Shakespearean Rag, 28/07/2025)
“There’s something about writing that is my way of preparing for death.”

Reader’s Delight Episode 20, July 27, 2025 (Suzanne Craig-Whytock, Reader's Delight, 28/07/2025)
A lovely interview with Saad Omar Khan up on Reader's Delight.

Drinking the Ocean (the Artisanal Writer, 05/07/2025)
Saad Omar Khan is interviewed in the latest edition of the Artisanal Writer.

Why I Wrote this Book Issue #46 (The Miramichi Reader, 25/05/2025)
"While not exactly therapeutic, it was an exercise in validating the pain of this past by reifying my memories in narrative form."

Saad Omar Khan Delicately Illuminates the Arcs of Two Haunted Lives in Drinking the Ocean (Open Book, 21/05/2025)
"It is through love – even a clear-eyed, unsanitized love – that we write our stories, not to portray our communities as perfect, but to ensure that by representing them in our work, they live, have value, and are remembered."

Power Q & A with Saad Omar Khan (River Street Writing, 13/04/2025)
"Writing about my characters and their emotional challenges – grief, mental illness, familial strife, and difficulties finding spiritual and worldly love – is a political act. It is my fight against the conventional framing of Muslims solely in terms of geopolitics or conflict."

Saad Omar Khan: Emotionally deep writing through evolution, great skill, and reading across genres (Sheelagh Caygill, On Creative Writing, 13/03/2025)
"Undergirding all those themes is a broader and, from my perspective, a more universal one: how our emotional and spiritual ideals often rub uncomfortably against reality."

Articles

Our August Summer Reading List (49th Shelf, 29/07/2025)
Drinking the Ocean is included in this great summer reading list.

15 Small Press Books You Should Be Reading This Summer (Wendy J. Fox, Electric Lit, 04/07/2025)
It's wonderful to see Saad Omar Khan's Drinking the Ocean on this great Electric Lit list!

Super Summer Reads (John Pigeau, theHumm, July 2025)
A lovely mention of Saad Omar Khan's Drinking the Ocean in Johnny Pigeau's latest column for TheHumm.

15 Small Press Books You Should Be Reading This Summer (Wendy J. Fox, Electric Lit, 04/07/2025)
"An artfully meditative novel, Khan captures highly personal matters of faith, complex relationship dynamics, and a deep sense of longing in this beautifully written debut."

Excerpt: Drinking the Ocean by Saad Omar Khan (Miramichi Reader, 09/05/2025)
Saad shares an excerpt from Drinking the Ocean.

Most Anticipated: Our 2025 Spring Fiction Preview (49th Shelf, 01/02/2025)
We're delighted to see Saad Omar Khan's Drinking the Ocean on this fabulous list of Most Anticipated Spring Fiction from the 49th Shelf!

About the Author

Saad Omar Khan was born in the United Arab Emirates to Pakistani parents and lived in the Philippines, Hong Kong and South Korea before immigrating to Canada. He is a graduate of the University of Toronto and the London School of Economics and has completed a certificate in Creative Writing from the School of Continuing Studies (University of Toronto) where he was a finalist for the Random House Creative Writing Award (2010 and 2011) and for the Marina Nemat Award (2012). In 2019, he was longlisted for the Guernica Prize for Literary Fiction. His short fiction has appeared in Best Canadian Stories 2025 and other publications.