15 Books by Muslim American Authors That Need to Be on Your Radar

This New York Times bestseller is a heart-wrenching story of war, class, and friendship. The Kite Runner is narrated by Amir, a privileged young man who comes of age during the last peaceful days of Afghanistan's monarchy. The book tells the story of Afghanistan's recent history through his eyes and through his friendship with his father's servant, Hassan.

Madras on Rainy Days tells the story of Layla and Sameer, who have just begun an arranged marriage in India. Layla enters the marriage after spending half of her life in America and, after taking a lover there, pregnant. Her partner Sameer accepts her for who she is — because he has a gay lover of his own. The novel follows Layla's journey to separate patriarchal traditions from the egalitarian message of Islam, and to truly understand herself and her culture.

Forbidden by Faith by Negeen Papehn tells the story of two people with an instant love connection — and one massive, important difference. Sara is Muslim and raised to make decisions based on her family's approval. But when she meets and instantly falls for Maziar, who's Jewish, they have to decide if their separate faiths are too different to overcome.

The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty is a fantastical tale set in 18th-century Cairo, Egypt. Nahri, a con woman, accidentally summons Dara, a djinn warrior, who leads her to Daevabad, the legendary city of brass. There, her arrival ignites a war that's been brewing for centuries.

The sequel to The City of Brass, The Kingdom of Copper by S. A. Chakraborty picks up where the first book left off. Nahri is still in Daevebad, where she's learned that her family used to hold the throne, but she's forced to watch as the current king rules with fear and lies. And his son, the prince she's befriended, is in exile and being hunted by assassins.

The Empire of Gold is the last book in S. A. Chakraborty's Daevebad trilogy. In this final installment, Daevebad has fallen and been stripped of its magic. Nahri and her ally, the prince, are in charge of putting the city back together, but in doing so, they're forced to confront ugly truths about the past.

We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal is a YA fantasy novel that tells the story of two people: Zafira, the Hunter, who disguises herself as a man to hunt in a cursed forest to feed her people; and Nasir, the Prince of Death, who kills anyone who defies his father, the sultan. When Zafira embarks on a quest to save her people from the forest's curse, Nasir is sent on a quest to find and stop her.

Internment by Samira Ahmed is set in a horrifying near-future United States, where 17-year-old Layla Amin and her parents are forced into an internment camp for Muslim American citizens. Layla, with the help of new friends and a boyfriend outside the camp's borders, begins a fight for freedom.

The Gauntlet by Karuna Riazi describes itself as "steampunk Jumanji with a Middle Eastern flair." This YA fiction book follows three friends in New York City who find themselves trapped in a mechanical board game. If they can't escape, they'll be trapped in the game — not as players, but as prisoners.

In Love, Hate & Other Filters by Samira Ahmed, Maya is a 17-year-old who can't wait to leave her small town for college. But when an act of domestic terrorism rocks her state, an outbreak of Islamophobia changes her world and threatens to alter the life she's been looking forward to.

Teenager Kamala Khan is a Pakistani American girl who lives with her parents and older brother in New Jersey. Completely normal . . . except she's also the superhero Ms. Marvel. The graphic novel, Ms. Marvel Volume 1: No Normal, is written by G. Willow Wilson. Mr. Marvel also has an upcoming debut as the first Muslim superhero in Marvel's cinematic universe.

The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson features fantasy, history, and romance. What's not to love? It follows Fatima, a concubine in the royal court of Granada (the last emirate of Muslim Spain) and her friend Hassan, the palace mapmaker. Hassan is no ordinary mapmaker, though — he can bend the maps he draws into reality. When representatives of the newly formed Spanish monarchy arrive to negotiate the sultan's surrender, they see his ability as a threat, and he and Fatima plan an escape across the country.

It's hard to write about Muslim American authors without bringing up Malcolm X. In The Autobiography of Malcom X, the civil-rights icon tells the story of his life and the growth of the Black Muslim movement. He takes on racism in society and the lie of the American Dream, and his message is as timely now as it was when the book was published.

This Is All Your Fault by Aminah Mae Safi tells its story in just one day. It follows three young women who work at an indie bookstore. When they learn that it's closing, they embark on an epic one-day quest to save it.

All-American Muslim Girl by Nadine Jolie Courtney tells Allie Abraham's story. She's a straight-A high-school student with good friends and a close-knit, quietly Muslim family. She doesn't practice outwardly, and she hasn't told her popular boyfriend with an incredibly conservative father about her heritage. In the face of growing Islamophobia, Allie begins to embrace her faith: studying it, practicing it, facing hatred and misunderstanding for it, and asking herself who she really is.