Brown Boy is an uncompromising interrogation of
identity, family, religion, race, and class, told through Omer
Aziz’s incisive and luminous prose. In the early 2000s, Toronto,
Omer Aziz’s working-class neighbourhood is miles away from the
wealthy white downtown. A first-generation Pakistani Muslim boy,
Omer struggles to find his place in a world of violence and
uncertainty, torn between cultures old and new. Dreading the
aimless, angry future that he sees other young men succumbing to,
Omer clings to his love for books and education, dreaming of a
wider world. Â That dream sees him through some of the most
prestigious international institutions, from Ontario to Paris to
Cambridge—and finally to Yale Law School. Yet despite his
success, Omer has never banished the insecurities and doubts that
come with being an outsider; a brown-skinned boy in an elite white
universe that has never really accepted him. The more books he
reads and the higher Omer soars, the stronger his need for
community and identity becomes, pushing him to question everything
and everyone around him. Was assimilation ever really an option?
Can you truly transcend the barriers of race and class in a system
that throws up obstacles at every turn? And can we—the collective
West—ever honestly confront the darkness and consequences of our
past?  Weaving together Omer’s powerful personal narrative
with the stories and people that moved him, Brown Boy is an
articulation of contradictions, displacement, and belonging. It’s
a book for anybody who has ever felt unwanted or out of place; a
testament to the complex process of creating an identity that fuses
where you’re from, what people see in you, and who you know
yourself to be. "A sterling portrait of personal revelation, cuts
to the bone." -- Publisher's Weekly (starred
review) "A brilliant and moving memoir of, among other things,
class migration and the choices made by outsiders. Aziz writes with
sensitivity and honesty about the tensions between growing up in a
working class immigrant home and the worlds of elite education and
politics. This book will surely make it onto any reading list
exploring the twin preoccupations of our time: race and
class." -- Zia Haider Rahman, author of In The Light of
What We Know "Omer Aziz’s astonishing journey
from economic hardship and violence to
Yale and becoming a foreign policy advisor would
be fascinating even if it didn’t tell us things we absolutely
need to know: Why have the white
and minority communities withdrawn into their separate
corners; what can be done to bring them together? An essential
memoir." -- Akhil Sharma, author of Family
Life and An Obedient Father. “This breathtaking,
brilliant memoir had me from page one—I couldn’t put it
down. Omer Aziz is a poet, his writing luminous. Brown
Boy is eye-opening, achingly honest, alternately hilarious
and heartbreaking—an unforgettable book.” —Amy Chua,
author of Political Tribes and Battle Hymn of the
Tiger Mother "Brown Boy is a poignant, unflinching
exploration of cultural identity: the roles we perform, the ways we
are misperceived, and the conflicted feelings we can have about our
pasts. Omer Aziz illuminates what it is like to be the child of
immigrants and the unique invisibility that comes with being South
Asian. I saw myself reflected in these pages. How rare, to
encounter one’s story with such candor and vulnerability. How
rare, and how necessary." —Maya Shanbhag Lang, author
of What We Carry, a New York Times Editors’
Choice
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