Author: Amrou Al-Kadhi
Publisher: Fourth Estate, 2019.
Amrou Al-Kadhi's Unicorn is a sweet sweet love letter to truth, belonging, our identity, childhood and all that we believe about ourselves. Unicorn is relatable, you don't have to be Queer to understand it, you just have to be human and have some heart.
Growing up in a somewhat conservative Middle Eastern Muslim family, young gender confused Amrou takes on the strangest coping mechanisms to deal with his inferiority and supposed sinful thinking. Concentrating on anything but the obvious he becomes OCD about his school work, grows a Marine world in his room, strives for a notable title at Eton, applies the mantra of DR -ABC to stay in the present moment, as well as a myriad of other strange oddities, but all of these coping mechanisms last months, some years, but eventually they shatter, leaving the truth he so desperately wants to live but is too afraid to.
This is a coming of age story. A story about a mothers love and approval.
Amrou's Prose is engaging, funny and candid even when your heart is breaking for him.
The writing is brighter than the yellow cover and remarkably beautiful and descriptive.
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