SP: The way this book moves through time was really interesting to me. Everyone else seems to be into getting married, and she’s just like, “No.” She just doesn’t know why she’s so different. She knows she has these intense friendships, and she doesn’t understand why. So, Razia knows she’s different, but she doesn’t understand why. There was no understanding of what queerness was as a child. I mean, this book takes place in the ’80s. So, this book came out of desires to both explore the wound of that initial break and then also, on a joyous, happy side, talk about friendship when you’re queer and you don’t know you’re queer yet. In the queer community, chosen family and friendship, they’re all one and the same, and I just wanted to write about how important friendship is. This book started with these key friendships - inspired by some of the friends that I had as a child and as a teenager - how important those friendships are, and how friendship is about survival. SHELBI POLK: Tell me why you decided to dig into the earlier life of this character.īUSHRA REHMAN: I really just wanted to write about friendship. Shondaland chatted with Rehman about imagery, growing up in Queens, the joys and pitfalls of the 1980s, and more. The chapters are a bit episodic, showing flashes of Razia’s life as she learns about herself and the world, but the portrait they paint is loving and complete. Corona follows Razia’s life after she leaves her home, while Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion, Rehman’s first novel, digs into Razia’s childhood. Rehman has explored other parts of Razia’s story before in a short story collection called Corona. The novel is filled with strong friendships, powerful community ties, and complex family dynamics, and Rehman has captured the beauty (and difficulties) of coming of age. Razia is just beginning to understand her queer identity, and after beginning high school at Stuyvesant High, a competitive public school, and meeting Angela, Razia’s conception of herself changes even more. Razia’s story is a beautiful look into the loving Muslim community Rehman knew intimately.

The protagonist is Razia Mirza, a young Pakistani American girl growing up in Corona, Queens - a diverse neighborhood where author Bushra Rehman came of age.

Roses, in the Mouth of a Lion is a novel full of the kind of image-driven anecdotes that make up a childhood.

Roses in the mouth of a lion