An ABA ‘Indies Introduce’ Selection for Winter/Spring 2018
An ABA IndieNext Selection “Top Pick”
A Spring 2018 Barnes & Noble "Discover Great New Writers" Selection
A Kobo Winter eBook Indie Pick
YALSA 2019 Best Fiction for Young Adults Nominee
A Seventeen Magazine Top 22 Young Adult Book of 2018
American-born 17-year-old Maya Aziz is torn between worlds. There’s the proper one her parents expect for their good Indian daughter: attending a college close to their suburban Chicago home, and being paired off with an older Muslim boy who’s “suit able” to her mother. And then there is the world of her dreams: going to film school and living in New York City—and maybe, just maybe, pursuing a boy she’s known from afar her entire life who’s suddenly falling into her orbit at school.
But unbeknownst to Maya, there is a danger looming beyond her control. When a terrorist attack occurs in another Midwestern city, the prime suspect happens to share her last name. In an instant, Maya’s community, consumed by fear and hatred, becomes unrecognizable, and her life changes forever.
Samira Ahmed was born in Bombay, India, and grew up in a small town in Illinois in a house that smelled like fried onions, cardamom, and potpourri. A graduate of the University of Chicago, she taught high school English, helped create dozens of small high schools, and fought to secure billions of additional dollars to fairly fund public schools. She’s lived in Vermont, Chicago, New York City, and Kauai, where she spent a year searching for the perfect mango.
Samira will read from and discuss the book followed by signing. Books will be sold at the event.