Staff Pick
Guapa takes place over a single day, following Rasa, a young queer Muslim man as he navigates the aftermath of two crises — the sputtering disappointment of the Arab Spring and accompanying authoritarian backlash, and the fact that his domineering grandmother Teta, the only family he has, has just caught him with his lover. Stuck between the social propriety of his grandmother and deeply closeted lover on one side and the passionate activism of his best friend Maj, a punky drag queen, Rasa is politically aware but disenchanted, afraid to commit himself to either side. Guapa careens from the pleasure palaces of the wealthy elite to the grimly policed slums and the underground gay dive bar that gives the book its title, as Rasa tries to make sense of himself and his place in the world. It is the best kind of fiction — a book that immerses you wholly into someone else’s reality while making you see your own life through new eyes. Recommended By Patrick D., Powells.com