This novel follows Amina and her 11 year old nephew Omar who is the son of her brother Mohammed (Mo). Every other chapter is told from either Amina’s or Omar’s perspective. Amina is a scientist and has a fairly cold personality. She is independent, career oriented and isn’t very likable. Amina and Mo are Indian American and come from a Indian Muslim family. Mo married a white woman which results in Omar being quite confused about his identity.
There is not much religious exploration that happens in this book despite the Muslim roots of this family. Amina identifies as Atheist. It is a post 9/11 world and Omar has lots of questions mainly because of the type of comments and reactions he gets from people at school. Amina and his parents are to busy going through their own life challenges to pay much attention to Omar and his curiosity about India. He does his own research and gets in trouble at times from his own exploration. I think this was intentional by the author to represent the reality of many confused biracial or bicultural kids growing up today without much support.
I was happy to see Sikh representation in the book although even this character was confused about his own religious identity. Personally I would have liked the character more if they were embracing there Sikh American identity despite living in a post 9/11 world. I guess I can understand that if you do not feel any connection to a religion why go through the rituals or wear the turban that goes along with it. To each their own.
This book is not without its faults and awkward moments but I appreciate it for what it is, a bicultural family struggling to get by in this crazy world.
*Thank you to the publisher Forest Ave Press for the gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
preeti reads 