TANIA MALIK chats to Paul about her novel, just out in the UK, HOPE YOU ARE SATISFIED, Dubai, the immigrant experience, spooks, smugglers and tourists.

HOPE YOU ARE SATISFIED: 1990. Twenty-five-year-old Riya works for Discover Arabia, a tour guide company in the far-flung outpost of Dubai. In the months leading up to the first Gulf War, the city's iconic skyline and global reputation are just a gleam in developers' eyes. For Riya, it's a desert purgatory that spreads out between her family back home in India and her unknown future.
As political tensions run high, international arms dealers, American soldiers, CIA consultants, corrupt bosses and wayward vacationers all compete for Discover Arabia's attention. Meanwhile, Riya and her colleagues begin to plan their exit strategies.
Will a favour from Dubai's most notorious fixer offer Riya the chance to fulfil her financial obligations and escape to the United States?

Tania Malik is the author of Three Bargains and Hope You Are Satisfied. She was born in New Delhi and raised in India, Africa and the Middle East. She was educated in boarding schools in the foothills of the Himalayas and graduated from the University of Delhi with a degree in geography. Tania has had a varied career in the travel marketing and non-profit industries. She divides her time between San Francisco's Bay Area and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Recommendations City of Thieves David Benioff, American Spy Lauren Wilkinson

Paul Burke writes for Monocle Magazine, Crime Time, Crime Fiction Lover and the European Literature Network, Punk Noir Magazine (fiction contribution). He is also a CWA Historical Dagger Judge 2024. His first book An Encyclopedia of  Spy Fiction will be out in late 2025.

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