The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali
Publisher
Scholastic Press
Publication Year
2019
ISBN
9781338227017
Pages
336 pages
Genre
realism
Format
novel
Item Type
Fiction
Annotation
Seventeen-year-old Rukhsana Ali is looking forward to going to Caltech and getting away from her conservative Muslim parents' expectation that she will marry, especially since she is in love with her girlfriend Ariana--but when her parents catch her kissing Ariana, they whisk Rukhsana off to Bangladesh and a world of tradition and arranged marriages, and she must find the courage to fight for the right to choose her own path.
Grade Level
9-12
Lexile Measure
HL690L
Diversity Topics
Family Relationships; Culture/Ethnicity; LGBTQ (Gender and Sexuality); Family violence; Bicultural; Immigrants and refugees; Gay/Lesbian; abusive parents; domestic abuse; bicultural teenager; immigrant parents; gay; gay teenager; lesbian; lesbian teenager
Main Character
female teenager
Race/Ethnicities
Asian (Bangladeshi American)
Family Formation
mother and father
LGBTQ+
gay male; lesbian female
Keywords
Bangladesh; Muslim; Islam; arranged marriage; sexual assault; diary; cousins; homophobia; escape
Diversity Impact
direct
STARS Citation
Ali, Rukhsana, "The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali" (2019). Diverse Families. 1705.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/diversefamilies/1705