American Fever - Hardcover

by Dur E. Aziz Amna (Author)

WINNER OF THE ASIAN/PACIFIC AMERICAN AWARD FOR LITERATURE
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"A funny and affecting novel...a wonderful new spin on the coming-of-age story. A smart, charming debut." (Kirkus, starred review)

"A fascinating mix of immigrant tale, coming-of-age narrative, and cultural exposition...tackling some of the big migration questions of home and identity." (Booklist)"Dur E Aziz Amna has written an extraordinary coming-of-age story showcasing the experiences of a Pakistani Muslim girl coming to America. The novel uses brilliant storytelling to immerse readers and sheds light on the realities of what it is like being a foreigner living in a rural American town and the harsh emotional tension it entails."--From the citation for the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature

"This is a fearless, exacting, essential work, and marks the debut of a thrilling new global voice."--Peter Ho Davies, author of The Welsh Girl

On a year-long exchange program in rural Oregon, a Pakistani student, sixteen-year-old Hira, must swap Kashmiri chai for volleyball practice and try to understand why everyone around her seems to dislike Obama. A skeptically witty narrator, Hira finds herself stuck between worlds. The experience is memorable for reasons both good and bad; a first kiss, new friends, racism, Islamophobia, homesickness. Along the way Hira starts to feel increasingly unwell until she begins coughing up blood, and receives a diagnosis of tuberculosis, pushing her into quarantine and turning her newly established home away from home upside down.

American Fever is a compelling and laugh-out-loud funny novel about adolescence, family, otherness, religion, the push-and-pull of home. It marks the entrance on the international literary scene of the brilliant fresh voice of Dur e Aziz Amna.

Author Biography

Dur e Aziz Amna grew up in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, and now lives in New Jersey, USA. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Financial Times, and Longreads, among others. She won the 2019 Financial Times / Bodley Head Essay Prize, with an e-book publication by Penguin, and was longlisted for the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award 2020. She graduated from Yale College and the Helen Zell Writers' Program at the University of Michigan. Her debut novel, AMERICAN FEVER, was simultaneously published with Sceptre in the UK and Arcade Publishing in the US.