A queer hijabi Muslim immigrant survives her coming-of-age by drawing strength and hope from stories in the Quran in a memoir that’s “as funny as it is original” ( “A masterful, must-read contribution to conversations on power, justice, healing, and devotion from a singular voice I now trust with my whole heart.”--Glennon Doyle, #1 AN AUDACIOUS BOOK CLUB PICK • SHORTLISTED FOR THE BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY BOOK PRIZE When fourteen-year-old Lamya H realizes she has a crush on her teacher--her From that moment on, Lamya makes sense of her struggles and triumphs by comparing her experiences with some of the most famous stories in the Quran. She juxtaposes her coming out with Musa liberating his people from the pharoah; asks if Allah, who is neither male nor female, might instead be nonbinary; and, drawing on the faith and hope Nuh needed to construct his ark, begins to build a life of her own--ultimately finding that the answer to her lifelong quest for community and belonging lies in owning her identity as a queer, devout Muslim immigrant. This searingly intimate memoir in essays, spanning Lamya’s childhood to her arrival in the United States for college through early-adult life in New York City, tells a universal story of courage, trust, and love, celebrating what it means to be a seeker and an architect of one’s own life....

Autorentext

Lamya H is a former Lambda Literary Fellow whose writing has appeared in Vice, Salon, Vox, Black Girl Dangerous, Autostraddle, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. She currently lives in New York with her partner.