Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know

March 9, 2020
When 17-year-old Khayyam Maquet (named after Persian poet Omar Khayyam) and university student Alexandre Dumas (named after the French writer, his ancestor), meet by apparent coincidence in Paris one August day, they discover they share a common goal: finding a connection between the 19th-century Dumas and painter Eugène Delacroix. Visiting from Chicago, Khayyam, who is French, Indian, American, and Muslim, wants to jump-start her future as an art historian; Alexandre declares that he wants to preserve his family’s legacy. Short, interspersed sections told by 19th-century Leila, the “enslaved harem girl” whom Khayyam believes the original Dumas loved, and who may have inspired both a poem by Byron and a painting by Delacroix, build a suspenseful secondary story line. The book’s premise is promising, the Parisian setting enticing, and the dialogue sharply paced. In both scholarship and romance, Khayyam is consistently—if somewhat overtly—cued: she’s focused on her professional future, her anger at the way women’s stories are elided, and her drive to right that wrong. While the plot development can be hard to follow, punctuated by Khayyam’s confusion about a love interest at home and her feelings for Alexandre, Ahmed’s (Internment) story succeeds in exploring historical themes of prejudice and who tells whose stories while offering a multi-
faceted blend of contemporary and
historical intrigue. Ages 14–up. Agent: Joanna Volpe, New Leaf Literary.

Primarily narrated by Soneela Nankani, this audiobook features contemporary teenagers Khayyam and Alexandre. Even though they come from different countries, the two work together to solve a historical mystery that centers on a handful of literary and artistic celebrities. Nankani expertly performs the contemporary characters, capturing both the American, French, and Indian Khayyam and the thoroughly Parisian Alexandre. Nankani decisively places the listener in current-day France. Her contemporary voices juxtapose well with narrator Leila Buck's poignant portrayals of nineteenth-century figures, most notably the teenaged courtesan, whose voice Buck infuses with deep emotion. This is an enjoyable story, and one is further entertained by Nankani's and Buck's performances. A.L.S.M. � AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine