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Start giftingRoses, in the Mouth of a Lion
A Novel
Narrator
Bushra Rehman
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
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Length
9 hours 22 minutes
Language
English
Bookseller recommendation
“Growing up in Corona, Queens with her loving and supportive parents, Razia struggles to balance her love for her parents and her Pakistani-American heritage with her growing self-knowledge and desire for independence. As her sexual awakening and her need to follow her own heart pull her farther from her parents’ plans for her future, inevitable conflict arises. This well-crafted coming-of-age story peopled with wonderful characters ends perfectly, leaving questions and possibilities for both the listener and Razia.”
— Nancy • Raven Book Store
This program is read by the author.
For fans of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous and My Brilliant Friend, an unforgettable story about female friendship and queer love in a Muslim-American community
"I LOVED EVERY MOMENT." —Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia!
"Bushra Rehman performs her novel of a queer Pakistani American girl who is coming of age in the 1980s and '90s. As Razia begins rebelling in small ways, Rehman adds a layer of emotional intimacy to Razia's conflicted feelings. "- AudioFile
"The lush and poetic descriptions of the setting and culture serve as a love letter to the Pakistani American community and to Queens, with the audiobook elevated by Rehman’s finely tuned narration."- Library Journal
Razia Mirza grows up amid the wild grape vines and backyard sunflowers of Corona, Queens, with her best friend, Saima, by her side. When a family rift drives the girls apart, Razia’s heart is broken. She finds solace in Taslima, a new girl in her close-knit Pakistani-American community. They embark on a series of small rebellions: listening to scandalous music, wearing miniskirts, and cutting school to explore the city.
When Razia is accepted to Stuyvesant, a prestigious high school in Manhattan, the gulf between the person she is and the daughter her parents want her to be, widens. At Stuyvesant, Razia meets Angela and is attracted to her in a way that blossoms into a new understanding. When their relationship is discovered by an Aunty in the community, Razia must choose between her family and her own future.
Punctuated by both joy and loss, full of ’80s music and beloved novels, Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion is a new classic: a fiercely compassionate coming-of-age story of a girl struggling to reconcile her heritage and faith with her desire to be true to herself.
A Macmillan Audio production from Flatiron Books.
Bushra Rehman grew up in Corona, Queens. She is co-editor of Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today’s Feminism, and author of the poetry collection Marianna’s Beauty Salon and the dark comedy Corona, one of the New York Public Library’s favorite books about NYC.
Bushra Rehman grew up in Corona, Queens. She is co-editor of Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today’s Feminism, and author of the poetry collection Marianna’s Beauty Salon and the dark comedy Corona, one of the New York Public Library’s favorite books about NYC.
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Reviews
A Most Anticipated Book (The Millions, Autostraddle, Lit Hub)
“Stellar…Deeply immersive…The scenes brim with the pluck and tumult of young friendship while also portraying the uneasy racial balance that the first-generation children navigate in 1980s Queens…A distinctive and infectious voice takes hold of the reader from the first page.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Rehman's storytelling shares the elliptical grace of poetry. Her deeply sensitive protagonist, Razia, comes into sharp-focus like a shaken photograph, and Queens rears off the page in all its glorious vibrancy and complexity. I loved every moment I spent in Razia's company. A stunning novel from a vital writer.”
—Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia! and Orange World
“Enchanting, smart, and keenly observed, Bushra Rehman’s Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion shows us the wiry exhilaration of a girl becoming a woman she didn’t know she could be.”
—Mira Jacob, author of Good Talk
“With a poet's sensibility for language, Bushra Rehman has created a tender and multi-layered story of young Muslim women navigating a complicated and racialized world. This novel will break your heart open.”
—Daisy Hernández, author of The Kissing Bug
“An unforgettable novel of almost luminous vitality, rich with the episodic texture of life, heavy with love for its characters, shining with beauty and pain. Rehman’s prose is a knife, and I would let her cut out my heart again and again.”
—Rufi Thorpe, author of The Knockout Queen
“Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion is a brave, beauty-filled book that takes you by the hand and into Razia’s world. This book made me nostalgic for Queens and reminded me to take care of the girl who still lives inside me. I love this lush, lovely book—it deepens our understanding of the human experience and is a fiercely beautiful and honest ode to all girls becoming women.”
—Ishle Yi Park, poet laureate of Queens and author of The Temperature of This Water and Angel & Hannah
“Endearing, irreverent, and engaging. Bushra Rehman writes through the insightfully humorous lens of a sharp second-generation, Queens-bred Desi New Yorker. In Razia, she has created a unique character that is daring, hilarious, vulnerable and fierce. You will want to keep traveling with her long after the book ends.”
—DJ Rekha