Books
Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion: Tender story of growing up in a strict religious family in Queens
Bushra Rehman’s novel tells the story of a gay girl growing up in a conservative immigrant Pakistani family while being surrounded with western norms that clashed with those of her family
Write what you know, goes the old adage. Bushra Rehman has stuck to it for her second novel, which is about growing up as the daughter of Pakistani immigrants in the Corona neighbourhood of Queens during the 1980s. Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion follows the teenage Razia whose whole world seems encompassed by her local community, home to the first masjid built in New York.
This is a coming-of-age story in which Razia ...
