10-20
13 may incident
1969
A01=Hanna Alkaf
Age Group_Ages 12+
Age Group_Ages 12+
Author_Hanna Alkaf
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Category1=Kids
Category=YFB
Category=YXF
Category=YXN
conversation starter
COP=United States
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
diverse representation
diverse stories
djinn
eq_bestseller
eq_childrens
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_personal-social-topics
eq_teenage-young-adult
kuala lumpur
Language_English
malay
malaysian story
mother daughter stories
multicultural
national stadium
neurodiversity
obsessive compulsive disorder
ocd
own voices
PA=Available
Price_€10 to €20
PS=Active
race riots
salaam reads debut
softlaunch
southeast asia
southeast asian stories
winows and mirrors
Product details
- ISBN 9781534426092
- Weight: 222g
- Dimensions: 140 x 210mm
- Publication Date: 27 May 2021
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
- Age Group: Ages 12+
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A music loving teen with OCD does everything she can to find her way back to her mother during the historic race riots in 1969 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in this heart-pounding, “stunning” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) debut.
Melati Ahmad looks like your typical movie-going, Beatles-obsessed sixteen-year-old. Unlike most other sixteen-year-olds though, Mel also believes that she harbors a djinn inside her, one who threatens her with horrific images of her mother’s death unless she adheres to an elaborate ritual of counting and tapping to keep him satisfied.
A trip to the movies after school turns into a nightmare when the city erupts into violent race riots between the Chinese and the Malay. When gangsters come into the theater and hold movie-goers hostage, Mel, a Malay, is saved by a Chinese woman, but has to leave her best friend behind to die.
On their journey through town, Mel sees for herself the devastation caused by the riots. In her village, a neighbor tells her that her mother, a nurse, was called in to help with the many bodies piling up at the hospital. Mel must survive on her own, with the help of a few kind strangers, until she finds her mother. But the djinn in her mind threatens her ability to cope.
Melati Ahmad looks like your typical movie-going, Beatles-obsessed sixteen-year-old. Unlike most other sixteen-year-olds though, Mel also believes that she harbors a djinn inside her, one who threatens her with horrific images of her mother’s death unless she adheres to an elaborate ritual of counting and tapping to keep him satisfied.
A trip to the movies after school turns into a nightmare when the city erupts into violent race riots between the Chinese and the Malay. When gangsters come into the theater and hold movie-goers hostage, Mel, a Malay, is saved by a Chinese woman, but has to leave her best friend behind to die.
On their journey through town, Mel sees for herself the devastation caused by the riots. In her village, a neighbor tells her that her mother, a nurse, was called in to help with the many bodies piling up at the hospital. Mel must survive on her own, with the help of a few kind strangers, until she finds her mother. But the djinn in her mind threatens her ability to cope.
Hanna Alkaf is the author of The Weight of Our Sky, Queen of the Tiles, The Girl and the Ghost, Hamra and the Jungle of Memories, and The Hysterical Girls of St. Bernadette’s, as well as coeditor of the young adult anthology The Grimoire of Grave Fates. She graduated with a degree in journalism from Northwestern University and has spent most of her life working with words, both in fiction and nonfiction. She lives in Kuala Lumpur with her family.
