Seventeen-year-old Pakistani immigrant, Zara Hossain, has been leading a fairly typical life in Corpus Christi, Texas, the United States since her family moved there for her father to work as a pediatrician. While dealing with the Islamophobia that she faces at school, Zara has to lay low, trying not to stir up any trouble and jeopardize their family’s dependent visa status while they await their green card approval, which has been in process for almost nine years.

But one day her tormentor, star football player Tyler Benson, takes things too far, leaving a threatening note in her locker, and gets suspended. As an act of revenge against her for speaking out, Tyler and his friends vandalize Zara’s house with racist graffiti, leading to a violent crime that puts Zara’s entire future at risk. Now she must pay the ultimate price and choose between fighting to stay in the only place she’s ever called home or losing the life she loves and everyone in it.

The book provides insight into just how complicated and messy the immigration system is. There’s the general belief that as long as you enter the country legally (as is the case here with employer sponsored visas) that everything will proceed without any hiccups. The eye-opening book challenges this naive notion and highlights how flawed the system is.

From Sabina Khan, the author of the heart-wrenching yet hopeful novel, “The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali,” comes a timely, intimate look at what it means to be an immigrant in the United States today, and the endurance of hope and faith in the face of hate.

(SD-Agencies)