Furia meets I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter about the
unlikely friendship between two very different Syrian girls, the
pressures and expectations of the perfect Syrian daughter, and the
repercussions of the Syrian Revolution both at home and abroad.
Khadija Shami is a Syrian American high school senior raised on boxing
and football. Saddled with a monstrous ego and a fierce mother to test
it, she dreams of escaping her sheltered life to travel the world with
her best friend.
Leene Tahir is a Syrian refugee, doing her best to adjust to the
wildly unfamiliar society of a suburban Detroit high school while
battling panic attacks and family pressures.
When their worlds collide the result is catastrophic. To Khadija, Leene
embodies the tame, dutiful Syrian ideal she's long rebelled against. And
to Leene, Khadija is the strong-willed, closed-off American who makes
her doubt her place in the world.
But as Khadija digs up Leene's past, a startling and life-changing
discovery forces the two of them closer together. As the girls secretly
race to unravel the truth, a friendship slowly and hesitantly begins
blooming. Doubts are cast aside as they realize they have more in common
than they each expected. What they find takes them on a journey all the
way to Jordan, challenging what each knows about the other and herself.
Fans of Samira Ahmed's Love, Hate, and Other Filters and Tahereh
Mafi's A Very Large Expanse Of Sea will love Khadija and Leene's
sharp-witted voices in this dual POV narrative. The Next New Syrian
Girl is a poignant and timely blend of guilt, nostalgia, devotion, and
bad-ass hijabees.
