Fadi

Fadi is the central character / protagonist. He is a 12-year-old Muslim boy from Afghanistan with a passion for photography whose parents move his family to San Francisco in order to build a safer and happier life for their children. However, Fadi is unable to properly appreciate and enjoy his new life in America because of the intense guilt he feels over the fate of his little sister Mariam, who was accidentally left behind when the family escaped from Afghanistan. The novel tells the story of Fadi’s struggle to overcome his feelings of guilt for letting go of Mariam’s hand moments before she was lost and the various plans and schemes Fadi concocts in order to get back to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border to look for her.

Fadi’s life changed dramatically when his father, Habib, made the difficult decision to make his family leave their home country...