The powerful, moving story of a California teenager from an immigrant family who, finding himself in an increasingly hostile world, is turned from a carefree surfer's life towards a culture of fear and fanaticism

California, 2010. Alireza Courdee, a 14-year-old, straight-A student takes his first hit of pot - and is transformed from the high-achieving son of Iranian immigrants into a carefree stoner. He loses his virginity, starts surfing and lies to his father.

Then a terror incident shocks the nation. As fears escalate, his friends begin to withdraw and Reza becomes increasingly isolated, an object of suspicion because of his name and skin colour. Now he can only relate to Arash, a fellow Muslim student, and beautiful Fatima, who starts wearing a hijab and going to the mosque. Little by little, Reza is drawn into a frightening new world. . .

Brilliantly channeling the minds of angst-filled teenagers with barely formed worldviews who seesaw between brash self-confidence and deflating insecurities . . . Khadivi has written an important, smart, timely novel that rivals such standouts as Karan Mahajan's The Association of Small Bombs or Moshin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist