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 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