Hamza Jalil Albasit was born in Karachi in 1997 and left Pakistan at the age of seventeen to study at a high school in rural Norway and then moved to the United States to complete his undergraduation. During his high school years Hamza directed a number of plays, prominent among them being a large-scale adaptation of Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge. In the Unites States, he worked on writing and directing short films, focusing on themes of dreams and nightmares, urban isolation, and mental health, for a student-led film company. The Oracle of Hate, his debut novel, is an ode to his beloved hometown, Karachi, and its fearless people.