The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf
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Syrian immigrant Khadra Shamy is growing up in a devout, tightly knit Muslim family in 1970s Indiana, at the crossroads of bad polyester and Islamic dress codes. Along with her brother Eyad and her African-American friends, Hakim and Hanifa, she bikes the Indianapolis streets exploring the fault-lines between "Muslim" and "American."
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When her picture-perfect marriage goes sour, Khadra flees to Syria and learns how to pray again. On returning to America she works in an eastern state — taking care to stay away from Indiana, where the murder of her friend Tayiba's sister by Klan violence years before still haunts her. But when her job sends her to cover a national Islamic conference in Indianapolis, she's back on familiar ground: Attending a concert by her brother's interfaith band The Clash of Civilizations, dodging questions from the "aunties" and "uncles," and running into the recently divorced Hakim everywhere.
Beautifully written and featuring an exuberant cast of characters, The Girl in the Tangerine Scarfcharts the spiritual and social landscape of Muslims in middle America, from five daily prayers to the Indy 500 car race. It is a riveting debut from an important new voice.
Liked The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf? Here’s where I’d start.
These suit anyone who liked The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.
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What's Right with Islam Is What's Right With America: A New Vision for Muslims and the West Shares islam, nonfiction, adult -
The Calligrapher's Secret Shares Middle East, Syria, fiction -
The Islamist Phoenix: The Islamic State (ISIS) and the Redrawing of the Middle East Shares Middle East, Syria, islam -
A Quiet Revolution: The Veil's Resurgence, from the Middle East to America Shares Middle East, islam, religion
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Threading My Prayer Rug: One Woman's Journey from Pakistani Muslim to American Muslim
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'Til Faith Do Us Part: The Rise of Interfaith Marriage and the Future of American Religion, Family, and Society
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Saffron Cross: The Unlikely Story of How a Christian Minister Married a Hindu Monk
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Girl Before a Mirror