Hope Ablaze
A Novel
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5.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
She lost her words but found her voice.
All My Rage meets The Poet X in this electric debut that explores a Muslim teen finding her voice in a post-9/11 America.
Nida has always been known as Mamou Abdul-Hafeedh’s niece - the poet who will fill her uncle’s shoes after he was wrongfully incarcerated during the war on terror. But for Nida, her poetry letters are her heart and sharing so much of herself with a world that stereotypes her faith and her hijab is not an option.
When Nida is illegally frisked at a Democratic Senatorial candidate’s political rally, she writes a scathing poem about the politician, never expecting the letter to go viral weeks before Election Day. Nida discovers her poem has won first place in a national contest, a contest she never entered, and her quiet life is toppled. But worst of all, Nida loses her ability to write poetry. In the aftermath of her win, Nida struggles to balance the expectations of her mother, her uncle, and her vibrant Muslim community with the person she truly wants to be.
With a touch of magic and poetry sprinkled throughout, Sarah Mughal Rana's Hope Ablaze is heartbreaking, often funny, and ultimately uplifting, not only celebrating the Islamic faith and Pakistani culture, but simultaneously confronting racism and Islamophobia with unflinching bravery.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Debut author Rana explores Islamophobia and politics via a magical lens in this genre-bending novel set in post-9/11 America. Eighteen-year-old Pakistani American Nida Siddiqui is the niece of renowned poet Mamou Abdul-Hafeedh, who was incarcerated on trumped-up charges during the "war on terror." On her way home from visiting him, Nida is violently and illegally frisked at a Democratic Senatorial candidate's political rally, during which her hijab is forcibly removed by law enforcement. In response, she writes a series of poems and journal entries, one of which goes viral after Nida's notebook mysteriously disappears. Suddenly, her quiet life is upended: she's accused of defaming the candidate, and her uncle loses legal representation. When Nida realizes that she's cursed ("Did Allah do this to me?") to never write again, she is forced to choose between the safety of silence or the power of her voice. Through a mixture of verse and occasionally didactic prose, Rana effectively portrays the friction between religious freedom and state-sponsored secularism, underpinned by discussion surrounding wrongful incarceration and xenophobia. The result is a thought-provoking and provocative novel about faith, family, and friendship. Ages 13–up.
