num_pages: 288
description: For readers of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous and My Brilliant Friend Bushra Rehman's Roses in the Mouth of a Lion is an unforgettable story about female friendship and queer love in a Muslim-American community.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 Razias 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.
language: English
title: Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion
publisher: Flatiron Books