Sabaa Tahir – the next J.K. Rowling?

Sabaa Tahir ruined my sleep.

Her new book, An Ember In The Ashes, kept me up at night. I couldn’t put the book down. I’m not the only one. It seems as though anyone who touches the book cannot stop reading until the story ends. It has the addictive quality of The Hunger Games combined with the fantasy of Harry Potter and the brutality of Game of Thrones.

The story is deceptively simple. It’s told through two characters. One is a young girl, Laia, who turns into a spy in an attempt to save her captured brother. The other is a soldier, Elias, who questions the purpose of what he does. That’s all I’m going to say. I don’t want to ruin anything. You can read the first two chapters of the book below.

Tahir is a new voice in fantasy. She’s the daughter of Pakistani immigrants who owned a small 18-room motel at a Navy base in the Mojave dessert.

 

Read more here.

 

Photo Credit: Penguin Young Readers

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