All My Rage

Gr 9 Up--In a genre flip from fantasy, Tahir has created a contemporary novel that spans both time and place. In past Pakistan, Misbah weds Toufiq in an arranged marriage that results in a move to California after upheaval at home. Now they run a small hotel in the Mojave Desert. Their son Salahudin and dear family friend Noor hold a connection bound by their history and the challenges they face due to Islamophobia, racism, and more. When his mother's health fails and his father battles alcoholism as he grieves, the financial and maintenance aspects of the hotel fall to Sal, who takes drastic measures to save the hotel his mother loved so very much. Simultaneously, Noor is striving to leave her uncle's grasp by planning to go away to college, but finds herself caught up by Sal's choices. Tahir's lyrical prose unpacks both the beautiful and the brutal. She deftly captures the layers of grief, rage, family, examination of faith, and forgiveness, while managing to inject levity into dire situations and provide a semblance of hope. Music aficionados will revel in the songs referenced throughout various scenes in the book. VERDICT This deep dive into the complex ferocity of emotions within families is a love letter to Pakistani culture and revelations from the past that test the boundaries of survival. Put this book at the top of your list.--Lisa Krok, Morley Lib., Cleveland, OH

Tahir (the Ember in the Ashes series) explores heavy themes, including grief, racism, financial need, trauma, and substance abuse, in a far-reaching novel that follows a working-class Pakistani American family across two generations. Years after 18-year-old Misbah enters an arranged marriage in Lahore and moves to Juniper, Calif., her 18-year-old son Sal worries over the family's motel, while his father becomes increasingly reliant on alcohol and Misbah's kidney disease worsens. To compound matters, Sal has fallen out with best friend and fellow Pakistani American Noor, 18, whose confession of love, and Sal's brutal rejection of it, splintered their previously tight connection. Now Noor juggles work at her uncle's liquor shop with secret, forbidden dreams of university. When Sal learns that his family is heavily indebted and about to lose their motel, it sets off a chain reaction that forces them both into a spiral of desperation, with seemingly no way out. Narrated in a clean, fluid prose style through alternating chapters voiced by Misbah, Noor, and Sal, this powerful, viscerally told novel unfolds across the past and present, painting solidly multidimensional characters alongside vividly wrought connections and pressure. Ages 14-up. Agent: Alexandra Machinist, ICM Partners. (Mar.)