Desi Girl Speaking (Paperback) - A. S. Hussain

A powerful and ultimately hopeful exploration of teenage mental health from an important new voice.

Tweety is struggling.

Battling depression and faced with parents and friends who don't fully understand what's happening, sixteen-year-old Tweety feels like no one is listening and there's nowhere to turn to. Until she stumbles across Desi Girl Speaking, a podcast by someone else who's struggling too.

Through episodes and exchanged emails, Tweety and Desi Girl begin to confide in each other, but as Tweety's depression deepens, she'll have to decide whether to stay silenced or use her voice to speak up.

A powerful and compassionate novel about mental health and hope, for readers of Yasmin Rahman, Muhammad Khan and Danielle Jawando.

(TRIGGER WARNING: this book explores mental health, including discussion of depression, suicide and self-harm.)

About the Author

A. S. Hussain was born and raised in Stockholm, Sweden but currently lives and writes in Bath, Somerset. She is a graduate of the Bath Spa MAWYP. Not having seen herself in the books she read as a teenager, A. S. writes YA novels with South Asian characters at the heart of the story. Aside from writing and working as an Operations Manager, Anika is involved with the Hawkins Project, founded by Dave Eggers, to elevate the voices of young people in the publishing industry. In her free time, A. S. rewatches Love Island, listens to too many true crime podcasts, and sings pop-punk songs loudly around her apartment.