Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know
Samira Ahmed
ISBN: 9781616959890
Published: Paperback release July 2021
Pricing
Hardcover $18.99
Paperback $10.99
More books by Samira Ahmed
Description
Discover New York Times bestseller Samira Ahmed’s romantic, sweeping adventure through the streets of Paris told in alternating narratives that bridge centuries, continents, and the lives of two young Muslim women fighting to write their own stories.
Smash the patriarchy. Eat all the pastries.<...
Discover New York Times bestseller Samira Ahmed’s romantic, sweeping adventure through the streets of Paris told in alternating narratives that bridge centuries, continents, and the lives of two young Muslim women fighting to write their own stories.
Smash the patriarchy. Eat all the pastries.
It’s August in Paris and 17-year-old Khayyam Maquet—American, French, Indian, Muslim—is at a crossroads. This holiday with her parents should be a dream trip for the budding art historian. But her maybe-ex-boyfriend is ghosting her, she might have just blown her chance at getting into her dream college, and now all she really wants is to be back home in Chicago figuring out her messy life instead of brooding in the City of Light.
Two hundred years before Khayyam’s summer of discontent, Leila is struggling to survive and keep her true love hidden from the Pasha who has “gifted” her with favored status in his harem. In the present day—and with the company of Alex, a très charmant teen descendant of Alexandre Dumas—Khayyam searches for a rumored lost painting, uncovering a connection between Leila and Alexandre Dumas, Eugène Delacroix, and Lord Byron that may have been erased from history.
Echoing across centuries, Leila and Khayyam’s lives intertwine, and as one woman’s long-forgotten life is uncovered, another’s is transformed.
Media
“Ahmed's brilliant novel shows that the familiar journey of being smart, in love, and a little lost is as profound now as it was in the 19th century. Add in a romance in the hidden gardens of Paris and an explosive trove of lost historical letters from a woman almost forgotten and you've got a fresh, thoughtful joyride that you'll want to read with every woman and girl you know. ”
—Kim Liggett, New York Times bestselling author of The Grace Year, on Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know
“If I wasn't already a librarian, archivist and history lover I certainly would be after reading this. Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know is a lovely book about history, secrets, loyalty and life’s journey. Ahmed successfully captures the thrill of solving a good old fashioned mystery with sound research, breaking and entering, and a little bit of Google. I can't wait for the movie!”
—Amy Vidlak Girmscheid, Director, Sandwich Public Library District
“Ahmed blends art history, romance, passion and purpose as vibrant brush strokes on a canvas in this passionate narrative about the power of the past to influence the present. ”
—Julia Torres, Teacher/Librarian, Denver Public Schools
“Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know follows two Muslim girls, separated by centuries, as one tries to track down the missing history of the other. Readers will be entranced as Khayyam puts together the pieces of Leila’s story . . . Samira Ahmed deftly weaves history, classic literature, an art mystery, and a complicated romance.”
—Rachel Strolle, Teen Librarian, Glenside Public Library District
“Sharp, insightful and full of complex history and connections, Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know weaves a tapestry between today and the past, creating a story unlike any we’ve seen in modern YA fiction and cementing Samira Ahmed’s place as a must-read author.”
—Sona Charaipotra, author of Symptoms of a Heartbreak
“Rich, emotional, and inspirational. Samira Ahmed does it again with a work of art that reads like an anthem for the voices silenced throughout history, and a call to raise our own. Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know is a deeply thought-provoking, immersive love story to the hidden histories that dwell within us—and like any good story, it will live in your heart for years to come.”