The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Tahir, Sabaa. All My Rage. Atom, 2022.

Sabaa Tahir’s All My Rage follows the ups and downs in the relationship between Noor and Salahudin, as an accumulation of calamities threatens to send their lives spiraling out of control. By way of background, the novel also follows the journey of Salahudin’s mother, Misbah, from her youth and marriage in Pakistan to her death in America. The novel maintains a first-person point of view, but each chapter is subtitled “Misbah,” “Sal,” or “Noor” depending on the narrator for that chapter. Tahir employs the present tense for Sal and Noor, and the past tense for Misbah (with the exception of the final chapter). Instead of providing dates, subheadings differentiate between “then” (Misbah) and “now” (Sal and Noor), along with the month in question. Some chapters also specify a location. However, information about time and place only appears when necessary, to indicate a shift. Another notable feature of Misbah’s chapters is the use of italics, which further sets them apart from the present-day chapters.

Part One begins in Lahore, where Misbah learned that her parents had found a husband for her. She consulted a fortune teller, who foretold that she would move far away from Pakistan.

In the small Californian town of Juniper, Salahudin and Noor – formerly inseparable childhood friends – have been estranged since “the Fight” six months ago, when Sal, who hates people touching him, reacted badly to Noor’s romantic advances (7, 14). Sal now has a girlfriend, Ashlee, but he cannot stop thinking about Noor. Meanwhile, his mother (Misbah) is ill, and his father (Toufiq) is drunk all the time. Misbah is working too hard, trying to take care of business at the motel which the family own. Noor lives with her uncle (Mr. Riaz, or “Chachu” to Noor), who – as she keeps having to remind herself – rescued her from the wreckage of her Pakistani home when she was six, following the earthquake which killed the rest of her family (13). He brought her back with him, giving up his engineering internship at Juniper’s military base and buying a liquor store. Now, he is full of resentment towards his niece, who works part-time in the shop. He assures her that she will be taking over the business when she finishes school, so that he can resume his engineering studies. Noor, however, has been secretly applying to go to college. She wants to be a doctor.

Noor and Salahudin start talking to each other again, and Noor decides to check on Misbah, who she thinks of as “Auntie,” but who she has been avoiding since the Fight (13). She arrives to find that Misbah’s health has taken a drastic turn for the worst. An ambulance takes Misbah to hospital, and she dies with Noor by her side, while Salahudin has to deal with the police because of his father’s drunken behavior.

In Part Two, Misbah was happy and relieved when she met Toufiq for the first time. However, on the day of the wedding she was shocked to find out that his mother had a drinking problem.

After the funeral, Salahudin breaks up with Ashlee and revives his friendship with Noor. He discovers that Misbah had not been keeping up with the bills, and that the family could face eviction. Feeling guilty for not doing more to support Misbah when she was alive, he resolves to save the motel that she had loved so much. He talks to Art, a drug dealer at school, about selling his mother’s painkillers. Art convinces him to start dealing, as an easy way to raise the money he needs, and provides him with more (increasingly hard) drugs to sell. Meanwhile, Noor receives letters of rejection from nearly all of the schools that she had applied to.

In Part Three, Misbah and Toufiq moved to America, following the tragic death of Toufiq’s parents. In Juniper, Toufiq worked at the military base while Misbah managed the motel.

Noor and Salahudin feel an increasingly strong attraction to each other, but dishonesty and denial get in the way of romance. Sal does not want Noor to know how he is making money, and Noor does not want Sal to know the realities of her home life. Sal struggles to run the motel, as Toufiq’s drinking becomes worse. Eventually, Sal realizes that Noor’s uncle is hitting her.

In Part Four, the school suspends Noor when she lashes out at the girl who has been bullying her. A guilt-stricken Salahudin resolves to quit dealing when Ashlee overdoses on painkillers – some of which she had bought from him. He gathers the drugs still in his possession, ready to hand back to Art. Noor turns up badly injured, after a vicious assault by her uncle. They drive out to the mountains, where they end up kissing passionately – with Sal finally experiencing physical contact as a pleasurable rather than distressing sensation. Afterwards, Noor allows him to drive her to hospital, but the police stop them on the way. They find the drugs in the car – many of which Sal had hurriedly tried to hide under Noor’s seat and bag – and arrest them both.

Misbah and Toufiq adored their baby boy, who liked to explore the motel as soon as he was old enough to crawl. Their joy turned to horror when a tenant at the motel caught Salahudin alone and raped him. The man escaped without consequences.

In Part Five, Misbah despised Riaz, but she was happy to look after Noor when he brought her to the motel. She noticed how gentle and affectionate Noor and Salahudin were with each other, and how her shy son became confident and cheerful under the influence of his new playmate.

Noor goes to live with Imam Shafiq and his wife Khadija, a lawyer who volunteers to defend her. They persuade Noor to finish school in the meantime, although none of the colleges she applied to have offered her a place, and it seems likely that she will go to prison anyway. The case against Salahudin is more hopeful, because the drugs were underneath Noor’s seat and bag. His lawyer advises Sal to implicate her as part of his plea deal. Sal decides to search Riaz’s study, in case he had intercepted mail from the one university that Noor never heard back from. Sure enough, he finds a letter of acceptance – which is enough to persuade Noor to fight for her future instead of taking a plea deal. However, she still cannot forgive Sal. In court, Sal defies his lawyer by reading out a full confession, which results in Noor being cleared of all charges.

In Part Six, Salahudin survives prison while Noor thrives at university. Sal takes up writing – drawing on memories of his mother in order to piece together the story of her life. When he gets out of prison, he and Noor reconcile beside Misbah’s grave. Misbah herself died with a troubled conscience, but this visit from her children helps her to find peace in the afterlife.