![]() ![]() The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali tells the story of closeted lesbian Rukhsana Ali, who feels like she is being pulled in opposite directions by the people she loves most: Her parents, who want her to uphold their Bengali culture in Seattle, and her girlfriend, who wants her to be transparent with her family about their relationship. “Even five years ago, you would be hard-pressed to find any titles like this.” “In my wildest dreams, I never imagined this,” she tells Bustle. ![]() She decided to write a novel with a character of her cultural background - and The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali is the result. In the last several years, the movement to diversify children's literature has intensified, and Khan began to see characters of different backgrounds represented in books. ![]() Yet, it didn't occur to her until decades later that books could feature protagonists that looked like her, because all the stories she read centered on white characters. It was books that eased the transition when she moved from Germany (where she spoke Urdu at home and German at school), to Bangladesh (where everyone spoke Bengali and English) at just eight-years-old. She devoured them all - and, from then on, she considered herself a voracious reader. ![]() While author Sabina Khan recovered from a burst appendix as a child, her older sister gave her The Phantom comic books to pass the time, and her friends dropped off copies of Enid Blyton’s boarding school series. ![]()
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