Publisher: Richmond, Victoria: Hardie Grant Books, 2015
Annotation:
Good Muslim Boy is the humourously told memoir of actor, writer and comedian Osamah Sami. Born to an Iranian father and Kurdish mother, who met in an Iraqi refugee camp, Sami's early life was marked by conflict; he lost a brother in the war and witnessed a public execution. Boyish shenanigans like selling blackmarket fireworks and trying to hold hands with girls earned him floggings at the hands of the piety police. After moving to Melbourne at 12, where his dad got a job teaching Arabic literature and lead the local mosque, Osamah still cannot avoid getting into trouble -- whether finding a way out of a proposed arranged marriage or pretending to study medicine for a year to placate his parents.
"Good Muslim Boy is a hilarious and heartbreaking memoir of love, loss and family." (Blurb on back cover) It won the 2016 New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards and the 2015 International Golden Phoenix Award for contribution to Iraqi Culture in diaspora.
Additional formats: Also available as an audiobook
For more information:
- Osamah Sami (author's website)
- ABC (interview with the author)
- Sydney Morning Herald (interview with the author)
- SBS (interview with the author)
- Goodreads
