Part of Series
8 Hours and 5 Minutes There are three kinds of people in my world:
- Saints, those special people moving the world forward. Sometimes you glaze over them. Or, at least, I do. They’re in your face so much, you can’t see them, like how you can’t see your nose.
- Misfits, people who don’t belong. Like me—the way I don’t fit into Dad’s brand-new family or in the leftover one composed of Mom and my older brother, Mama’s-Boy-Muhammad. Also, there’s Jeremy and me. Misfits. Because although, alliteratively speaking, Janna and Jeremy sound good together, we don’t go together. Same planet, different worlds. But sometimes worlds collide and beautiful things happen, right?
- Monsters. Well, monsters wearing saint masks, like in Flannery O’Connor’s stories. Like the monster at my mosque. People think he’s holy, untouchable, but nobody has seen under the mask. Except me.
Author
About-the-author, bare bones: S. K. Ali writes the Muslim characters in stories she never saw growing up. The official version: S. K. Ali is the NYT bestselling and award-winning author of several books. Her debut novel, Saints and Misfits was the winner of the 2018 APALA Honor award, the 2017 Middle East Book Honor Award, and a 2018 William C. Morris Award finalist. Her widely acclaimed second novel, LOVE FROM A TO Z, a story about finding love in the time of Islamophobia, was an Entertainment Weekly Top Ten Young Adult Book of 2019 and a Goodreads Choice Awards finalist . It was also the first teen novel chosen for NBC Today Show's Read with Jenna Book Club. The sequel to Saints and Misfits, Misfit in Love, was a People magazine best book of summer 2021. Her newest YA novel, LOVE FROM MECCA TO MEDINA, released in fall 2022. She is currently working on more YA, as well as an adult romance. Sajidah also has a picture book series co-authored with Team USA Olympic Medalist, Ibtihaj Muhammad, which starts with the New York Times bestselling THE PROUDEST BLUE, followed by THE KINDEST RED. Her Middle Grade novels include the critically acclaimed anthology ONCE UPON AN EID co-edited with Aisha Saeed, and the multi-perspective GROUNDED, co-authored with Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow, Huda Al-Marashi and Aisha Saeed. She lives in Toronto with her family, which includes a very vocal cat named Yeti. Find her on twitter at https://twitter.com/SajidahWrites, on instagram at https://www.instagram.com/skalibooks/, on TikTok at https://www.tiktok.com/@skalibooks, and on her website at https://skalibooks.com/.
