The Odyssey Bookshop: Bushra Rehman

Join us in person on Thursday, December 15 at 7 PM as Bushra Rehman talks about her new novel, Roses in the Mouth of a Lion, the December Odyssey First Editions Club pick. She will be joined in conversation by Dulani.

About the Book

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, 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.

About Bushra Rehman

Bushra Rehman’s collection of stories, Corona, a dark comedy about being Muslim American was chosen by the New York Public Library as one of its favorite books about NYC and her book of poems, Marianna’s Beauty Salon was described by Joseph O. Legaspi as a “love poem for Muslim girls, Queens, and immigrants making sense of their foreign home--and surviving.” She coedited the anthology Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today’s Feminism, which was chosen as one of Ms. Magazine's "100 Best Non-fiction Books of All Time.” Her newest novel, Roses in the Mouth of a Lion centers on friendship and queer desire among young Pakistani-American women from Queens.

About Dulani

Dulani is a Pushcart nominated multi-genre writer. His poetry and creative non-fiction have appeared in The Rumpus, Best New Poets 2020, Alaska Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. He is co-editor of the anthology The Revolution Starts At Home: Confronting Intimate Violence in Activist Communities. Dulani’s manuscript, Language We Fall Through was a finalist in the Kelsey Street Press QTBIPOC Book Prize.

Visit https://www.odysseybks.com/event/roses-mouth-lion-conversation-bushra-rehman-and-dulani-person or email events@odysseybks.com for more information.