How It All Blew Up

October 19, 2020
To avoid being outed as gay to his conservative Muslim parents, Iranian American Amir Azadi, 18, skips his high school graduation and impulsively flees to Rome, embarking on a month of parties, poetry, and dreamy crushes. Once in Italy, Amir befriends a close-knit group of young gay men, including effervescent Jahan, an Iranian-Dominican poet who helps Amir envision how he can proudly live as his whole self. Eventually, Amir must return to America, and after a family argument about Amir’s sexuality escalates on the plane, the visibly Muslim Azadi family is temporarily detained. Amir’s first-person narrative is framed by transcripts of each family member’s interrogation at the airport, enabling Ahmadi (Girl Gone Viral) to switch perspectives and expand the novel’s emotional landscape. This moving and well-written coming-of-age novel renders how Amir’s acceptance of his sexuality strengthens his resolve to reconcile his fragmented self and live in his full truth. Ages 14–up.