An Illinois Lincoln Book Award selection
A Missouri Gateway Readers Book Award selection
A New Hampshire Flume Book Award selection
A 2021-2022 National Education Association Read Across America selection
A YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers List selection

“I could not put this book down.”
—Marie Myung-Ok Lee, The New York Times Book Review

PURCHASE LINKS:
Barnes & Noble | Bookshop.org | IndieBound | Amazon

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda goes to Italy in Arvin Ahmadi's newest incisive look at identity and what it means to find yourself by running away.

Eighteen-year-old Amir Azadi always knew coming out to his Muslim family would be messy--he just didn't think it would end in an airport interrogation room. But when faced with a failed relationship, bullies, and blackmail, running away to Rome is his only option. Right?

Soon, late nights with new friends and dates in the Sistine Chapel start to feel like second nature... until his old life comes knocking on his door. Now, Amir has to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth to a US Customs officer, or risk losing his hard-won freedom.

At turns uplifting and devastating, How It All Blew Up is Arvin Ahmadi's most powerful novel yet, a celebration of how life's most painful moments can live alongside the riotous, life-changing joys of discovering who you are.

Praise:

“Ahmadi portrays the treatment of sexual desire in various cultures with frank and often funny insight. And Amir is an immediately likable character with whom we empathize… I could not put this book down.” – THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

★ “Fast-paced… clever… A funny and propulsive read, nuanced and full of heart.” – SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL 

“A fully realized, deeply sympathetic character, Amir tells his own story in the first person voice, in the tradition of Iranian storytellers. The result is compelling.” – BOOKLIST

“Authentic, hilarious, and heart-wrenching all at once.”
—Angie Thomas, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Hate U Give and On the Come Up
 
“Dazzling and ingenious.”
—Gayle Forman, #1 New York Times bestselling author of If I Stay

“[A] mas­terpiece of a story… I truly believe we’ll be talking about this book decades from now as a classic.”
—Becky Albertalli, New York Times bestselling author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

“A dramatic ticking time-bomb of a finale.”
—Adam Silvera, New York Times bestselling author of They Both Die at the End

Press:
Publishers Weekly announcement
NYLON Magazine Q&A/Excerpt
Entertainment Weekly interview
TIME Magazine essay