In the Country I Love - Hardcover

Name: In the Country I Love - Hardcover
Brand: BooksCloud
SKU: 9781682638101
Price: 19.99 USD
Availability: InStock

by Alaa Al-Barkawi

$19.99

Book Overview

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by Alaa Al-Barkawi (Author)

Two Iraqi American best friends--a struggling teen father and the community's golden boy--confront dark truths about their families in the wake of a devastating crime in this heartrending YA debut.

As a seventeen-year-old single dad and a soon-to-be high school drop-out, Yassir Al-Azzawi's lapsed Shia faith is just another thing convincing his parents he's a failure. One more mistake, and they'll send him back to their homeland, a war-torn Iraq.

Khaled Al-Hakim is perfect on paper: devout in his faith, a straight-A student, and captain of the debate team. But beneath the surface, Khaled is no saint either, and his worst sin yet is ignoring his parents' command to stay away from Yassir.

When their secret friendship is exposed, the consequences set off a series of events that cause family secrets from both sides to come to light, and neither Yassir nor Khaled are prepared to learn the stains that taint their family names.

Told through multiple POVs across time, this authentic exploration of the Shia Muslim experience in the U.S. seamlessly combines classic YA themes of identity, coming-of-age, and relationships with timely social themes of racism, Islamophobia, and justice. This compelling, contemporary debut is perfect for fans of Sabaa Tahir's All My Rage and Markus Zusak's The Book Thief.

Author Biography

Alaa Al-Barkawi is a first-generation, Iraqi American Shia Muslim writer. She is the co-runner of QuillersSWANA, a literary organization dedicated to Southwest Asian and North African writers, and serves as a Literary Peace Ambassador for Threads of Peace. Alaa holds a master's degree from Johns Hopkins University and has worked with refugee and immigrant students for nearly a decade. In the Country I Love is her debut novel. Visit her website at AlaaWrites.com and follow her on Instagram @AlaaAlBarkawi.

Number of Pages: 384

Dimensions: 1.35 x 8.12 x 5.21 IN

Publication Date: May 26, 2026

ISBN	9781682638101
Author	Alaa Al-Barkawi
Publisher	Peachtree Teen
Genre	Young adult
Format	Hardcover
Published	May 2026
Language	ENG- English
Pages	384
Weight	1.0 lb
Target Audience	Teens & young adults and Adults
Print Size	Standard Print