How do you find yourself without losing your family? A memoir about growing up, breaking the rules and negotiating culture, from a new Australian voice.

'Sara El Sayed has written a book both confident and delicate that will leave you eagerly awaiting her next. Read this!' -Mona Eltahawy

'Sara El Sayed is an enchanting and refreshing new voice in the Australian literary landscape.' -Maxine Beneba Clarke

A hilarious, heartwarming memoir of growing up and becoming yourself in an Egyptian Muslim family

Soos is coming of age in a household with a lot of rules. No bikinis, despite the Queensland heat. No boys, unless he's Muslim. And no life insurance, not even when her father gets cancer.

Soos is trying to balance her parents' strict decrees with having friendships, crushes and the freedom to develop her own values. With each rule Soos comes up against, she is forced to choose between doing what her parents say is right and following her instincts. When her family falls apart, she comes to see her parents as flawed, their morals based on a muddy logic. But she will also learn that they are her strongest defenders.

'Both cosmopolitan and Australian at the same time, Muddy People is like the best kind of cake- warm, sweet, a bit nutty - and made with so much love.' -Alice Pung

'Sara El Sayed's writing is fresh, vibrant and dynamic.' -Michael Mohammed Ahmad Sara El Sayed was born in Alexandria, Egypt. She has a Master of Fine Arts and works at Queensland University of Technology. Her work features in the anthologies Growing Up African in Australia and Arab, Australian, Other, among other places. She is a recipient of a Queensland Writers Fellowship and was a finalist for the 2020 Queensland Premier's Young Writers and Publishers Award. Muddy People is her first book.