Huma Qureshi’s debut novel is for ‘misfits that fall outside societal norms’

Spanning 27 years, from 1992 to 2019, and set in a fictitious county nestled in the Himalayas, sees actor Huma S Qureshi turn author with her debut book Zeba: An Accidental Superhero. The actor unveiled her book on Saturday (December 2) during her session at the 12th edition of the Bangalore Literature Festival in the Karnataka capital. “It is a story about a badly behaved woman, who ends up saving the world. This is a book for all misfits that fall outside societal norms,” she says.

For the 37-year-old, “the scariest part of writing this book was that people would know how I think”. “As a writer, you have nothing to hide behind. [Writing] the humour was difficult for me because there are things that are funny to me that may not be funny to others,” she shares. Talking about the characters that are featured in her book, Qureshi says, “Not just Zeba (the protagonist), but all the characters in the book are me. They have come from my imagination and impression of the world.”