Beloved readers,
What’s a work of young adult fiction you’re anticipating?
Y’all already know that I’m an earnest fan of all the young adult stories Adiba Jaigirdar writes. In her forthcoming book, she’s partnered with Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé. In the last few months, both of them have been exemplary in their advocacy for & solidarity with Palestinian liberation. As waves of Islamophobic suppression & censorship are ongoing in the publishing industry, I utge reading communities to stand up together proactively to support outspoken Muslim authors.
Highly recommend adding this new Eid story by Muslim authors on Goodreads & preordering it!
Check out this book description:
Ex-best friends, Tiwa and Said, must work together to save their Islamic Center from demolition, in this romantic story of rekindling and rebuilding by award-winning authors Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé & Adiba Jaigirdar!
These days, Said Hossain spends most of his time away at boarding school. But when his favorite hometown librarian Ms. Barnes dies, he must return home to New Crosshaven for her funeral and for the summer. Too bad being home makes it a lot harder to avoid facing his ex-best friend, Tiwa Olatunji, or facing the daunting task of telling his Bangladeshi parents that he would rather be an artist than a doctor.
Tiwa doesn’t understand what made Said start ignoring her, but it’s probably that fancy boarding school of his. Though he’s unexpectedly staying through the summer, she’s determined to take a page from him and pretend he doesn’t exist. Besides, she has more than enough going on, between grieving her broken family and helping her mother throw the upcoming Eid celebration at the Islamic Center—a place that means so much to Tiwa.
But when the Islamic Center accidentally catches fire, it turns out the mayor plans to demolish the center entirely. Things are still tense between the ex-friends but Tiwa needs Said’s help if there’s any hope of changing the mayor’s mind, and Said needs a project to submit to art school (unbeknownst to anyone). Will all their efforts be enough to save the Islamic Center, save Eid, and maybe save their relationship?
Release date: June 4th 2024
Recently, they hosted a q&a on Instagram & it made me anticipate the book even more!
Here is the Four Eids Q&A ~
How did you guys come up with the concept for the book?
The title came first and then we were so obsessed with it and tried to think of which characters and what story might come from that. We also wanted to write a story that reminded us a lot of our favourite stories such as We Are Lady Parts!
How did you approach writing something together?
Faridah: I have always been a huge fan of Adiba’s work, and I think many writers love collaboration and so it felt like a natural next step for me.
Adiba: We’ve been friends for a long time, before either of us were published or had agents, and always talked about maybe writing a book together. And then one day we just started brainstorming what a collab book could look like!
What was the best part about writing together?
Faridah: For me, I really enjoy the collaboration and exchange of ideas.
Adiba: Faridah and I have a similar sense of humour so I had a lot of fun writing the humour/jokes in the book because we would laugh a lot. Writing humour by yourself is kind of annoying because you don’t know if it lands but when you’re writing with someone else you kind of see if the humour is working in real time!
What were the challenges when it came to collaborating, if any?
Faridah: It can be difficult getting into the flow of things at the start of every project, but that’s also the same when working on solo-authored projects.
Adiba: I think figuring out how our writing and revision styles work together was a little challenging at first. We tried a few different things and eventually found something that worked for both of us!
What did the process of writing together look like?
The writing process was a lot of fun – we wrote alternate chapters and edited each other’s chapters as we went along! We also had a pretty detailed chapter-by-chapter outline which definitely made the process a lot easier to manage.
What is your favourite Eid tradition?
Faridah: In my family we wear new pyjamas as well as new clothes.
Adiba: Our family always has a really big eid breakfast, usually with porotas and chicken korma.
Eid al- Fitr is on April 9th this year
Join me in adding this book to your reading & gifting lists this Eid. A few electronic advance copies are accessible to those of you who review books. Otherwise, I suggest preordering copies in time for Eid and presenting recipients a card or token with a note letting them know the book will arrive when it releases.
For the pyar of writing community,
Desi book aunty
I don't read a lot of YA but this looks intriguing!!!