Hollow Fires
On sale
10th May 2022
Price: £9.99
Redbridge Teenage Book Award, 2023
‘Powerful, timely and relentlessly compelling. HOLLOW FIRES burns brightly with Samira Ahmed’s trademark blend of thought-provoking social relevance, heartfelt coming-of-age and whip-smart plotting’ Karen McManus, author of ONE OF US IS LYING
Safiya Mirza dreams of becoming a journalist. One thing she’s learned as editor of her school newspaper is that a journalist’s job is to find the facts and not let personal bias affect the story: but that changes the day she discovers Jawad.
Jawad Ali was just fourteen when a teacher saw him wearing a cosplay jetpack and mistook it for a bomb. A mistake that got Jawad arrested, labelled a terrorist – ‘Bomb Boy’ – and eventually killed. But who was the young boy behind the headlines?
With Jawad’s haunting voice guiding her throughout her investigation, Safiya seeks to tell the whole truth about the murdered boy and those who killed him.
A powerful story of our times, Hollow Fires exposes the evil that hides in plain sight and the silent complicity of privileged bystanders who use alternative facts to bend the truth to their liking.
Safiya Mirza dreams of becoming a journalist. One thing she’s learned as editor of her school newspaper is that a journalist’s job is to find the facts and not let personal bias affect the story: but that changes the day she discovers Jawad.
Jawad Ali was just fourteen when a teacher saw him wearing a cosplay jetpack and mistook it for a bomb. A mistake that got Jawad arrested, labelled a terrorist – ‘Bomb Boy’ – and eventually killed. But who was the young boy behind the headlines?
With Jawad’s haunting voice guiding her throughout her investigation, Safiya seeks to tell the whole truth about the murdered boy and those who killed him.
A powerful story of our times, Hollow Fires exposes the evil that hides in plain sight and the silent complicity of privileged bystanders who use alternative facts to bend the truth to their liking.
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Reviews
The book presents a ripped-from-the-headlines story that will be an easy sell both in terms of theme and topic
Ahmed weaves evocative prose with images, articles, and text messages to explore with skill and depth the twining of social media in an age of misinformation, alt-right political movements, and racism and Islamophobia
A deeply chilling, inventive, and timely page-turner
Weaving alternating perspectives with articles and other media quotes, both real and fictional, this drives an all-too-real story that educates as much as it enthralls
'A powerful, timely, and relentlessly compelling read. Hollow Fires burns brightly with Samira Ahmed's trademark blend of thought-provoking social relevance, heartfelt coming-of-age, and whip-smart plotting'
'With Hollow Fires, Samira Ahmed offers us an impossible-to-put-down thriller that is both spectacularly haunting and deeply thoughtful. Safiya and Jawad are not narrators we usually see, and their harrowing story is a wholly original commentary on perception, community, and the way society weighs one life against another'
Ahmed wrings gripping plots from urgent topical issues