Author Event: Alaa Al-Barkawi

Please join us and author Alaa Al-Barkawi as she discusses her new book: IN THE COUNTRY I LOVE Alaa will be in conversation with Cass Biehn. Important Info: • This is a ticketed event • This event is free but we please ask that you RSVP • Event Details: Author talk, Q&A, followed by a signing. • Location: Poppy Books & Gifts. • Book Sales: All books will be available for sale at the event. However, to guarantee a copy of the book please choose the Ticket + Book option when purchasing your ticket. • No-Shows: Any orders/books not picked up at the event must be picked up from Poppy Books within two weeks. Ticket Options: • Ticket + Book: Admission for 1 person and 1 copy of the featured book. • RSVP: Admission for 1 person. For questions, please email: [email protected] ABOUT THE BOOK: Two Iraqi American best friends—a struggling teen father and the community's golden boy—confront dark truths about their families in the wake of a devastating crime in this heartrending YA debut. As a seventeen-year-old single dad and a soon-to-be high school drop-out, Yassir Al-Azzawi's lapsed Shia faith is just another thing convincing his parents he's a failure. One more mistake, and they'll send him back to their homeland, a war-torn Iraq. Khaled Al-Hakim is perfect on paper: devout in his faith, a straight-A student, and captain of the debate team. But beneath the surface, Khaled is no saint either, and his worst sin yet is ignoring his parents’ command to stay away from Yassir. When their secret friendship is exposed, the consequences set off a series of events that cause family secrets from both sides to come to light, and neither Yassir nor Khaled are prepared to learn the stains that taint their family names. Told through multiple POVs across time, this authentic exploration of the Shia Muslim experience in the U.S. seamlessly combines classic YA themes of identity, coming-of-age, and relationships with timely social themes of racism, Islamophobia, and justice. This compelling, contemporary debut is perfect for fans of Sabaa Tahir’s All My Rage and Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief. ABOUT THE AUTHORS: Alaa Al-Barkawi is a first-generation, Iraqi-American Shia Muslim writer. Alaa’s novels center around messy Iraqi characters navigating complicated family dynamics, Shia faith, weighty responsibilities, and culture. While her stories mostly take place in contemporary worlds, she infuses speculative twists with unexpected narrators inspired by Iraqi heritage and Islamic elements. Cass Biehn (they/them) writes messy queer characters in messier situations—and always with angsty kissing. They hold a Master of Library Science from Aberystwyth University in Wales and currently live in the Utah desert, where they split their time between cosplaying and wrangling their dogs. Cass' debut novel, VESUVIUS, is out now from Peachtree Teen in the US and Atom Books/Little, Brown in the UK. The sequel, ICARUS FELL, is slated for release in 2027, with a standalone third novel THOUGH THIS BE MADNESS to follow in 2028.