Bushra Rehman and May-lee Chai discuss
Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion
by Bushra Rehman
published by Flatiron Books

Purchase book here: https://citylights.com/general-fictio...

A New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice * An NPR Best Book of the Year * A Padma Lakshmi Book Club Pick

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.

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.

May-lee Chai is the author of the American Book Award–winning story collection Useful Phrases for Immigrants and ten other books. He most recent book is Tomorrow in Shanghai and Other Stories. Her prize-winning short prose has been published widely, including in the New England Review, Missouri Review, Seventeen, The Rumpus, ZYZZYVA, the Los Angeles Times, Dallas Morning News, and the San Francisco Chronicle. The recipient of an NEA fellowship in prose, Ms. Chai is an associate professor in the Creative Writing Department at San Francisco State University.

What has been said about the work of Bushra Rehman

“I always love a good coming-of-age story but this one hit so close to home I could hardly believe it― a desi girl’s teenage rebellion/friendship/love story, all in my childhood home of Queens? Rehman’s writing is beautiful and compelling, and the main character Razia’s world is one I wanted to linger in.”―Padma Lakshmi, New York Times bestselling author

This event was originally broadcast on Tuesday, July 30, 2024.

Made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation