Love from A to Z

LOVE FROM A TO Z begins on a flight to Doha, the capital of Qatar. Adam Chen, a Chinese Finnish Canadian university freshman is summoning the courage to tell his father and younger sister that he has multiple sclerosis (MS), the same disease that killed his mother 10 years before. Zayneb Malik, a Pakistani Guyanese Trinidadian high school senior from Indiana, got an unexpected early start to her spring break by being suspended from school after confronting a teacher who constantly brings his Islamophobia into the classroom. After meeting briefly on the plane, the two reconnect at a party, and Adam and Zayneb (often with his younger sister, Hanna) begin spending time together. As young Muslims (Adam, his father, and sister are converts), they share a common set of values when it comes to even casual dating: no kissing, touching, or sexting. They're still beginning to explore their feelings for each other when their relationship is put to the test. Adam has a serious attack of MS, and Zayneb needs support and understanding when she learns that her Pakistani grandmother, on her way to a wedding, was killed in an American drone strike gone terribly wrong. As the time for her to leave Doha and Adam to return to Indiana nears, Zayneb and her high school friends think they may have uncovered a way to publicly expose their teacher as a racist. An epilogue brings readers up to date on Adam and Zayneb's lives four years later.