Shamim Sarif is a novelist, screenwriter and film director. She recently wrote and directed the motion picture adaptation of her own first novel, The World Unseen, which was the winner of a Betty Trask Award and the Pendleton May First Novel Award. The film The World Unseen is the recipient of 23 international awards. She is also the writer/director of the feature film I Can't Think Straight, winner of 11 awards, which is based on her novel of the same name. Despite the Falling Snow is her second novel. She lives in London with her partner Hanan and their two children.