How It All Blew Up

October 19, 2020
To avoid being outed as gay to his conservative Muslim parents, Iranian American Amir Azadi, 18, skips his high school graduation and impulsively flees to Rome, embarking on a month of parties, poetry, and dreamy crushes. Once in Italy, Amir befriends a close-knit group of young gay men, including effervescent Jahan, an Iranian-Dominican poet who helps Amir envision how he can proudly live as his whole self. Eventually, Amir must return to America, and after a family argument about Amir’s sexuality escalates on the plane, the visibly Muslim Azadi family is temporarily detained. Amir’s first-person narrative is framed by transcripts of each family member’s interrogation at the airport, enabling Ahmadi (Girl Gone Viral) to switch perspectives and expand the novel’s emotional landscape. This moving and well-written coming-of-age novel renders how Amir’s acceptance of his sexuality strengthens his resolve to reconcile his fragmented self and live in his full truth. Ages 14–up.

Vikas Adam leads a talented cast in telling the fast-moving story of 18-year-old Amir. Adam portrays the tormented high school senior, who is being blackmailed by a bully threatening to out him as gay at graduation. Adam makes Amir's fear and his flight to New York and then Rome fully believable. In Rome, listeners witness his initial awkwardness as he meets Jahan, a proudly gay Iranian-Dominican, and his friends. As Amir becomes increasingly comfortable with gay relationships, he transforms into a self-confident young man who refuses to hide his secret any longer. The main storyline is interrupted by vignettes of Amir, his parents, and his sister as they are being questioned at an airport. Each family member is fully realized and adds to a fuller picture of Amir. S.W. � AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine