The year is 1991. When Jasira's mother finds out what has been going on between her boyfriend and her thirteen-year-old daughter, she has to make a choice — and chooses to send Jasira off to Houston, Texas, to live with her father. A remote disciplinarian prone to explosive rages, Jasira's father is unable to show his daughter the love she craves — and far less able to handle her feelings about her changing body.

Bewildered by extremes of parental scrutiny and neglect, Jasira begins to look elsewhere for affection. Saddam Hussein has invaded Kuwait, and high school has become a lonely place for a "towelhead." When her father meets, and forbids her to see, her boyfriend, it becomes lonelier still. But there is always Mr. Vuoso — a neighboring army reservist whose son Jasira babysits. Mr. Vuoso, as Jasira discovers, has an extensive collection of Playboy magazines. And he doesn't seem to think there's anything wrong with Jasira's body at all.

Painfully funny, tender, and sexually charged, Towelhead is that rare thing: a gloriously readable novel unafraid to take risks. The story of a girl failed by her parents and by a conflicted America, Towelhead is an ultimately redemptive and moving work that none of us can afford to ignore.

"Erian (The Brutal Language of Love) takes a dogged, unflinching look at what happens as a young woman's sexuality blooms when only a predatory neighbor is paying attention. After 13-year-old Jasira is sent to live with her father in Houston ('I didn't want to live with Daddy. He had a weird accent and came from Lebanon'), she finds herself coming of age in the shadow of his old world, authoritarian ideas, which include a ban on tampons (they're for married women, he insists) and a friendship with a boy who's black. Trapped between her father's rigidity and a wider culture that seems without rules, Jasira is left to handle puberty on her own, as well as her budding sexual desire and an ongoing longing for love and acceptance. Her creepy neighbor, Mr. Vuoso, senses her desires, and she responds eagerly to his sexual overtures. His willingness to eroticize her is heightened by how exotic — as well as distasteful — he finds her, a half-Middle Eastern child living in America on the eve of the first Gulf War. He hires Jasira to baby-sit for his son, and it's clear that their relationship will destroy them. The writing is not subtle — indeed, it can be quite clunky — but as a meditation on race, adolescence and alienation, the novel has moments of power. Agent, Peter Steinberg. Author tour; film rights to Alan Ball (Six Feet Under)." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"Jasira's pain consumes the novel so fully that it overwhelms political symbolism. Instead, it is Jasira's straightforward, understated voice that gives power to this heartbreaking, utterly realistic story." Booklist

"Towelhead is surprising: it succeeds as an arch, coyly sexy book that's as nervy as its title. And it is screwball-sharp about the many forms of culture shock that shape its story....Ms. Erian gives this gutsy book its full share of...unthinkable questions." Janet Maslin, New York Times

"Alicia Erian's compelling debut novel fits into several categories, but none too tidily. It's sad and sexy, comic and political. Ms. Erian writes with energy and nerve." Dallas Morning News

"A tedious, fairly moronic take on the pubescent hormone surge....Storyteller Erian creates a hypnotic effect through her characters' repetitive dumbness — in a first novel that's annoying and memorable." Kirkus Reviews

"Towelhead is an affecting portrait of adolescence and the need for acceptance. It's a coming-of-age tale that's both shockingly honest and unexpectedly poignant — not to mention compulsively readable." BookReporter

"Towelhead nicely captures the rush of sexual stimuli that...turns an awakening into a fever dream. What the novel really nails, though, is grown-ups: their delusions, their pettiness, the way they sometimes seem, as a class, uniquely unqualified to raise children." Jeff Giles, The New York Times Book Review

"This isn't just a book," proclaimed Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk about Alicia Erian's story collection, The Brutal Language of Love. "This is hilarious, heartbreaking torture."

Erian captures themes of love and eroticism with a brilliance hailed by critics across the country. Now she takes her talent to a new genre, giving us a novel about adolescence and cultural confusion that is profound and darkly funny. It is August 1990. Saddam Hussein has just invaded Kuwait, and Jasira's mother has put her on a plane to Texas to live with her strict Lebanese father. Daddy buys a house for the two of them just outside of Houston, where Jasira is called a towelhead by the kids at her new school. For the first time, the awful truth hits her: she's an Arab. Her aching loneliness and mounting frustration with her parents' confounding rules drive her to rebel in very dangerous ways. Most alarmingly, she becomes sexually obsessed with the bigoted Army reservist next door, who alternately cares for, excites, and exploits her. Erian's story of an impressionable yet resilient girl who must grow up against the backdrop of the Gulf War is mesmerizing — a coming-of-age tale that is at once brutally honest and unexpectedly hilarious.

Erian's story of an impressionable yet resilient girl who must grow up against the backdrop of the Gulf War is mesmerizing — a coming-of-age tale that is at once brutally honest and unexpectedly hilarious.

Alicia Erian is the author of a short story collection, The Brutal Language of Love. Her work has appeared in Playboy, Zoetrope, Nerve, the Iowa Review, and other publications. This is her first novel.