The release date for the English version of 'We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir' by
Samra Habib is Jun 2019. If you enjoy this novel, it is available for buy as a paperback from Barnes & Noble or Indigo, as an ebook on the Amazon Kindle store, or as an audiobook on Audible.
Canada Reads the 2020 EDNA Steiner Award Winner for Creative Non-Fiction National Bestseller, Shortlisted for 2020
One of Book Riot's 100 Most Influential Gay Books of All Time and the 2020 Lambda Literary Award winner
When everyone around you tells you that you don't exist, how do you discover yourself?
Samra Habib has dedicated the most of their life to finding the security inside themselves. increasing up in Pakistan, the Ahmadi Muslim community was often threatened by radical Islamists who saw the tiny but increasing group as heretics. They learned from their parents that coming out as who they are may put them in serious jeopardy.
Samra faced an arranged marriage, prejudice, economic threats, and a whole new set of bullies when their family arrived in Canada as refugees. They were forced into a difficult situation, and they desperately needed a secure place to develop and nourish their feminist, creative spirit. Samra's existence was full with men who sought to control them, women who simply served as role models for devout obedience, and their bodies that needed to be fixed.
In order to discover a truth that has always been within of them, they embark on a trip that will lead them to the farthest corners of the world to explore religion, art, love, and queer sexuality. We Have Always Been Here is a magnificent book about forgiveness and family, both chosen and unchosen. It is a monument to the power of bravely embracing one's real self and a rallying cry for anybody who has ever felt out of place.