18-year-old Amir is struggling to come out to his family. So when a bully at school starts blackmailing him with pictures of him and his boyfriend, he decides that running away to Rome is the only answer.
A lot of (white) reviewers claim that this book isn’t ~Muslim enough~ but it literally doesn’t have to be. Just because it’s written by a Muslim Iranian author and the main character is Muslim, doesn’t mean it’s going to be a deep dive into the entire the faith. There are plenty of books where the main character’s decisions are largely affected by their religion, but not every book written by a Muslim author needs to be about Islam.
The book is told through the perspective of Amir who’s telling his story to a US Customs Agent after he got in a fight with his family on the way home from Rome (I think it’s pretty naive of people to think that Amir’s family would have been detained after having an argument on a plane if they weren’t Muslim, but that’s a different conversation).
I think this book is similar to Adib Khorram’s writing in that it’s kind of “low key.” There isn’t a whole lot of big explosive drama or anything like that. There isn’t a big climax where suddenly everything in the main character’s life is going wrong. It’s a story with lots of ups and downs and interesting characters. It reads almost more like a series of short stories of Amir in Italy and I think that’s what made it such a quick read.
I was a little disappointed in the ending. I felt there wasn’t enough closure with really anything. I want to know more about Amir and Jackson and Amir and his family and his family that he made in Italy. I wish there was just a little more closure.
This was a super quick read though and Amir’s voice was interesting and refreshing.
A lot of (white) reviewers claim that this book isn’t ~Muslim enough~ but it literally doesn’t have to be. Just because it’s written by a Muslim Iranian author and the main character is Muslim, doesn’t mean it’s going to be a deep dive into the entire the faith. There are plenty of books where the main character’s decisions are largely affected by their religion, but not every book written by a Muslim author needs to be about Islam.
The book is told through the perspective of Amir who’s telling his story to a US Customs Agent after he got in a fight with his family on the way home from Rome (I think it’s pretty naive of people to think that Amir’s family would have been detained after having an argument on a plane if they weren’t Muslim, but that’s a different conversation).
I think this book is similar to Adib Khorram’s writing in that it’s kind of “low key.” There isn’t a whole lot of big explosive drama or anything like that. There isn’t a big climax where suddenly everything in the main character’s life is going wrong. It’s a story with lots of ups and downs and interesting characters. It reads almost more like a series of short stories of Amir in Italy and I think that’s what made it such a quick read.
I was a little disappointed in the ending. I felt there wasn’t enough closure with really anything. I want to know more about Amir and Jackson and Amir and his family and his family that he made in Italy. I wish there was just a little more closure.
This was a super quick read though and Amir’s voice was interesting and refreshing.