Christian DeFeo
Dr Christian DeFeo, the first PhD graduate in Creative Writing in Humanities at the University of Southampton, launched his first book in August 2010. Mister Shah is the fruit of many years research into a subject that has long fascinated him; the story of a Moslem man wrongly accused of terrorism. Christian was supported by Professor Aamer Hussein, a Pakistani writer and critic.
Christian was born in New York. His parents emigrated with him and his sister to England when he was in his teens. “Writing this novel has taken up much of my life,” says Christian, who believes he is following a family tradition by becoming a novelist. “My Norwegian grandfather was an expressive and masterful story teller; perhaps I have inherited some of his talents.”
How does a harmless man end up in prison?
Mr. Wahid Shah is a Londoner of Pakistani descent, an accountant, a devoted husband, a fan of classical music. He is also perpetually on guard against the onslaught of unhygienic terrors from a world full of contagion.
When one day he dons a surgical mask in order to avoid bacteria on the London Underground his quiet life is turned upside down: he is no longer seen as just another citizen but as a dangerous radical.
Suddenly a victim of a paranoia incited by the media in the so-called “War on Terror” he is met with violence. Now he is cast into a dark, excruciating journey through cruelty, doubt and disbelief. As hidden traumas emerge, Wahid has to rethink his own past, present and future.