Description
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Biographical Note: --Kirkus Reviews A textured exploration of Shia Muslim life in the United States and the pressures facing immigrant youth. Recommended for all collections. --School Library Journal A moving exploration of the ties that bind us in community, and the engulfing heartbreak that ensues when they break. --S. K. Ali, New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of Saints and Misfits and Love from A to Z An intricately woven story that proves just how important it is to fight for the ones we love: our community members, our friends, our families, and ourselves. --Aamna Qureshi, bestselling and award-winning author of When a Brown Girl Flees With care, heart, and nuance, Alaa Al-Barkawi has crafted a story that delves into the tangled pain between two best friends and their families to lay bare the love worth fighting for. --Randy Ribay, award-winning author of National Book Award Finalist Patron Saints of Nothing Truly the debut book of the year and a story our time desperately needs. --Sarah Mughal Rana, bestselling author of Hope Ablaze and Dawn of the Firebird In the Country I Love shines as brightly as it aches, commanding you not to look away. Unflinching and heartfelt. --Maria Ingrande Mora, award-winning author of Fragile Remedy and The Immeasurable Depth of You As heartfelt as it is heartbreaking, Alaa Al-Barkawi gracefully unspools decades of secrets and injustice into the light of modern day. An elegant debut with a place on any bookshelf. --Amanda DeWitt, author of The Underwood Tapes Al-Barakawi's stunning narrative and lyrical writing kept me gripped long after I turned the final page. This book is three folds stunning, gutting, and haunting. --Heba Al-Wasity, author of Weavingshaw Publisher Marketing: Two Iraqi American best friends--a struggling teen father and the community's golden boy--confront dark truths about their families in the wake of a devastating crime in this heartrending YA debut. As a seventeen-year-old single dad and a soon-to-be high school drop-out, Yassir Al-Azzawi's lapsed Shia faith is just another thing convincing his parents he's a failure. One more mistake, and they'll send him back to their homeland, a war-torn Iraq. Khaled Al-Hakim is perfect on paper: devout in his faith, a straight-A student, and captain of the debate team. But beneath the surface, Khaled is no saint either, and his worst sin yet is ignoring his parents' command to stay away from Yassir. When their secret friendship is exposed, the consequences set off a series of events that cause family secrets from both sides to come to light, and neither Yassir nor Khaled are prepared to learn the stains that taint their family names. Told through multiple POVs across time, this authentic exploration of the Shia Muslim experience in the U.S. seamlessly combines classic YA themes of identity, coming-of-age, and relationships with timely social themes of racism, Islamophobia, and justice. This compelling, contemporary debut is perfect for fans of Sabaa Tahir's All My Rage and Markus Zusak's The Book Thief. Review Citations:
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In the Country I Love
$23.99