Name: Alaa Al-Barkawi | In the Country I Love
Start: 2026-05-26T18:30:00-06:00
End: 2026-05-26T20:30:00-06:00
Location: The King's English Bookshop

We are thrilled to host Alaa Al-Barkawi for the release of her debut YA novel, In the Country I Love
About this Event

We are thrilled to host local author, Alaa Al-Barkawi for her debut young adult novel, In the Country I Love.

There are two ticket options for this event.

1. A $5 ticket and all proceeds go directly to our partner non-profit, Brain Food Book.

2. $19.99 and includes a copy of In the Country I Love

Copies of the book will be available to purchase at the event. You may also pre-order your signed copy of the books to be picked up at the event by either calling the store at 801-484-9100 or ordering online. If you cannot make this event, signed copies may be ordered from our website. Please specify in the comments if you would like your copy personalized.

Places in the signing line are reserved for those who purchase a copy from The King's English.

About the book:

Two Iraqi American best friends—a struggling teen father and the community's golden boy—confront dark truths about their families in the wake of a devastating crime in this heartrending YA debut.

As a seventeen-year-old single dad and a soon-to-be high school drop-out, Yassir Al-Azzawi's lapsed Shia faith is just another thing convincing his parents he's a failure. One more mistake, and they'll send him back to their homeland, a war-torn Iraq.

Khaled Al-Hakim is perfect on paper: devout in his faith, a straight-A student, and captain of the debate team. But beneath the surface, Khaled is no saint either, and his worst sin yet is ignoring his parents’ command to stay away from Yassir.

When their secret friendship is exposed, the consequences set off a series of events that cause family secrets from both sides to come to light, and neither Yassir nor Khaled are prepared to learn the stains that taint their family names.

Told through multiple POVs across time, this authentic exploration of the Shia Muslim experience in the U.S. seamlessly combines classic YA themes of identity, coming-of-age, and relationships with timely social themes of racism, Islamophobia, and justice. This compelling, contemporary debut is perfect for fans of Sabaa Tahir’s All My Rage and Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief.

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