At the beginning of this book our two editors tell their stories: how they were not only children of migrants but each had a difficult ‘coming of age’. Because of their personal history they decided to gather stories from other Australian Muslims capturing their coming-of-age experiences. Hence this book of 12 authentic and personal stories from Muslims well known and not so well known.

The first story is by author Michael Mohammed Ahmad. His family moved to Lakemba, which he and his siblings renamed ‘Leb-kembla’, as there were so many Lebanese people living there. Like many young men from western Sydney, he had an identity crisis. That meant he had to look into his background and family history. After many turbulent high school years he graduated to university. Later his debut novel, The Tribe won him the 2015 Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelist of the Year award.

A very different story is from Bianca Elmir, a third-generation Lebanese woman, who, at 18 had her first kickboxing fight and won! She went on to win three boxing gold medals for Australia.

Then there’s Randa Abdel-Fattah, whose piece is called ‘The Road to Self-Acceptance is paved with Tim Tams’. As a teenager she believed she was a blob of lard and should lose weight. Her debut novel was Does My Head Look Big in This? which was made into a feature film.

There are so many interesting, diverse stories – one from Ali Alizadeh from Iran, who, in his own words, left God when he was 10 years old and another from Sabrina, Miss World Australia in 2006, a member of Mensa, with an IQ within the top two per cent in the world.

Even though this book was first published in 2014, it is now in paperback and is well worth reading as the stories remain relevant and inspirational. As our two editors, Amra and Demet say in their introduction:

‘We live in a society that is full of questions and misperceptions about Islam. We hope that these deeply personal stories will provide you with new insights and help you hear the voices of Australian Muslims.’

Reviewed by Merle Morcom