Hollow Fires

Samira Ahmed

The Book: In this thrilling novel, inspired by real events, Safiya, a student passionate about journalism, delves into a minefield, unaware of the abyss she is approaching.
Jawad Ali, a fourteen-year-old boy, American with Iraqi origins, is exceptionally intelligent and an inventor, successful in his studies and distinguished among his peers. The police arrested him because of his new invention, and he became known among his classmates, as well as in the media, as "the bomb boy." Skin color and ethnic origin still cause apprehension in the most diverse countries. There, everyone is under the law... except those above it. And there, even if the law rules innocence, the accused remains prey to his surroundings. The authorities acquitted Jawad, but his school punished him, and his community judged him. When he disappeared, the security and media agencies paid attention to the event for no more than a few days, after which everyone turned the page. But Safiya refused to do so. She won't let anyone forget him. There's a truth she must uncover, and a perpetrator she must expose, guided by her intuition and the voice of the murdered boy in her ear.

An Indian writer born in Mumbai, and a resident of the United States. She graduated from the University of Chicago and taught English to high school students for seven years. She worked on establishing over 70 small high schools in New York City and fought to secure billions of additional dollars to fairly fund public schools across New York State.

“In a novel that cleverly uses time jumps and alternating narratives (between Safiya and the ghost of Jawad), and sometimes includes text messages and newspaper articles, Ahmed places her story in the larger context of a racially divided world” ― The Horn Book Magazine.