The Weight of Our Sky

by Hanna Alkaf

4 of 5 stars 4 ratings • 3 reviews • 15 shelved
Book cover for The Weight of Our Sky

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A music loving teen with OCD does everything she can to find her way back to her mother during the historic race riots in 1969 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in this heart-pounding literary debut.

Melati Ahmad looks like your typical movie-going, Beatles-obsessed sixteen-year-old. Unlike most other sixteen-year-olds though, Mel also believes that she harbors a djinn inside her, one who threatens her with horrific images of her mother’s death unless she adheres to an elaborate ritual of counting and tapping to keep him satisfied.

A trip to the movies after school turns into a nightmare when the city erupts into violent race riots between the Chinese and the Malay. When gangsters come into the theater and hold movie-goers hostage, Mel, a Malay, is saved by a Chinese woman, but has to leave her best friend behind to die.

On their journey through town, Mel sees for herself the devastation caused by the riots. In her village, a neighbor tells her that her mother, a nurse, was called in to help with the many bodies piling up at the hospital. Mel must survive on her own, with the help of a few kind strangers, until she finds her mother. But the djinn in her mind threatens her ability to cope.
  • ISBN10 1534426086
  • ISBN13 9781534426085
  • Publish Date 21 February 2019 (first published 5 February 2019)
  • Publish Status Out of Print
  • Out of Print 5 April 2021
  • Publish Country US
  • Imprint Simon & Schuster
  • Format Hardcover
  • Pages 288
  • Language English