When their relationship is discovered by an Aunty in the community, Razia must choose between her family and her own future.

At Stuyvesant, Razia meets Angela and is attracted to her in a way that blossoms into a new understanding. When Razia is accepted to Stuyvesant, a prestigious high school in Manhattan, the gulf between the person she is and the daughter her parents want her to be, widens. They embark on a series of small rebellions: listening to scandalous music, wearing miniskirts, and cutting school to explore the city. She finds solace in Taslima, a new girl in her close-knit Pakistani-American community. When a family rift drives the girls apart, Razia's heart is broken. Razia Mirza grows up amid the wild grape vines and backyard sunflowers of Corona, Queens, with her best friend, Saima, by her side. In the vein of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, an unforgettable story about female friendship and queer love in a Muslim-American community. Punctuated by both joy and loss, full of '80s music and beloved novels, Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion is a new classic: a fiercely compassionate coming-of-age story of a girl struggling to reconcile her heritage and faith with her desire to be true to herself.

Rebellions: listening to scandalous music, wearing miniskirts, and cutting school to explore the city.

Roses in the mouth of a lion