Weight of Our Sky

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 moviegoing, 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.

But there are things that Melati can't protect her mother from. On the evening of May 13th, 1969, racial tensions in her home city of Kuala Lumpur boil over. The Chinese and Malays are at war, and Mel and her mother become separated by a city in flames.

With a 24-hour curfew in place and all lines of communication down, it will take the help of a Chinese boy named Vincent and all of the courage and grit in Melati’s arsenal to overcome the violence on the streets, her own prejudices, and her djinn’s surging power to make it back to the one person she can’t risk losing.

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**Content warnings: Racism, graphic violence, on-page death, OCD and anxiety triggers.**

O adolescenta iubitoare de muzica cu TOC face tot ce poate pentru a-si gasi drumul inapoi la mama ei in timpul revoltelor istorice de cursa din 1969 din Kuala Lumpur, Malaezia, in acest debut literar plin de inima. Melati Ahmad arata ca filmul tau tipic, obsedat de Beatles tanar de saisprezece ani. Spre deosebire de majoritatea celorlalti tineri de saisprezece ani, Mel crede, de asemenea, ca adaposteste un djinn in interiorul ei, unul care o ameninta cu imagini ingrozitoare ale mortii mamei sale, cu exceptia cazului in care adera la un ritual elaborat de numarare si atingere pentru a-l mentine multumit. sunt lucruri de care Melati nu-si poate proteja mama.