The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali

With a welcome mix of humor, heart, and high-stakes drama, Sabina Khan provides a timely and honest portrait of what it's like to grow up feeling unwelcome in your own culture.

Praise for The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali

Featured on NBC News and the BBC

A Junior Library Guild Selection

A Teen Indie Next List Pick (IndieBound)

An Amazon Best Book of the Month for February

Oprah Magazine's Best YA Books You'll Love in 2019

Seventeen.com's Best YA Books of 2019

B&N Teen Blog's Most Anticipated LGBTQAP Books of 2019

Hypable's Most Anticipated LGBTQ YA Books of 2019

Parade's Buzzworthy YA Books to Read in 2019

BookRiot's Most Anticipated 2019 LGBTQ YA of 2019

Paste Magazine's Best YA Books of January 2019

Short-listed, Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize (BC), 2020

Short-listed, OLA White Pine Award, Fiction, 2019

Commended, Best Books for Kids and Teens, Canadian Children's Book Centre, 2019

Commended, OLA Best Bets: Honourable Mention, 2019



'An intersectional, diverse coming of age story that will break your heart in the best way.' -- Bustle.com



* 'With an up-close depiction of the intersection of the LGBTQIA+ community with Bengali culture, this hard-hitting and hopeful story is a must-purchase for any YA collection.' -- School Library Journal, starred review



'This book will break your heart and then, chapter by chapter, piece it back together again. A much-needed addition to any YA shelf.' -- Sandhya Menon, New York Times bestselling author of When Dimple Met Rishi and From Twinkle, With Love



'Heart-wrenching yet hopeful, The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali is an insightful and honest look at the tangled web of identity, culture, familial loyalty, and love. Sabina Khan crafts a powerful, poignant story about finding yourself, about speaking your truth, and about stepping out of the shadows and into the light.' -- Samira Ahmed, New York Times bestselling author of Love, Hate and Other Filters



'A daring and timely novel, The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali delves head-and-heart-first into the universal complexities of navigating duty and desire, tradition and modernity, and friends and family -- the one we are born into and the one we choose; the friends who are family, and the family we strive to befriend -- all through the prism of multicultured identity. Political, personal, page-turning. Sabina Khan is one to watch.' -- Tanuja Desai Hidier, author of Born Confused and Bombay Blues



'Bold, heartbreaking, yet hopeful. A story that will stay with you for years to come.' -- Sara Farizan, Lambda Award-winning author of If You Could Be Mine



'The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali unapologetically explores the complex ties between families, friends, and intersectional diversity. Khan brings talent and voice in this brilliant novel that will keep you reading until the very last page.' -- Nisha Sharma, author of My So-Called Bollywood Life



'[The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali] takes LGBTQ fiction to another level and will help open readers' eyes to the realities that many face in these changing times.' -- Shelf Awareness