Like a Love Story
Written by Abdi Nazemian
Published by HarperCollins Publishers
It’s 1989 in New York City, and for three teens, the world is changing.
Reza is an Iranian boy who has just moved to the city with his mother to live with his stepfather and stepbrother. He’s terrified that someone will guess the truth he can barely acknowledge about himself. Reza knows he’s gay, but all he knows of gay life are the media’s images of men dying of AIDS.
Judy is an aspiring fashion designer who worships her uncle Stephen, a gay man with AIDS who devotes his time to activism as a member of ACT UP. Judy has never imagined finding romance…until she falls for Reza and they start dating.
Art is Judy’s best friend, their school’s only out and proud teen. He’ll never be who his conservative parents want him to be, so he rebels by documenting the AIDS crisis through his photographs.
As Reza and Art grow closer, Reza struggles to find a way out of his deception that won’t break Judy’s heart—and destroy the most meaningful friendship he’s ever known.
This is a bighearted, sprawling epic about friendship and love and the revolutionary act of living life to the fullest in the face of impossible odds.
Primary ISBN: 9780062839367
Available As: Hardcover, Paperback, Audiobook
Young Adult, Age 14 or older
Community Represented: Iranian/Iranian American
Themes: Allyship, Cross-Group Dating, Discrimination: Cultural, Family Relationship: Parents, Family Relationship: Siblings, Generational Differences: Dating, Immigrant: Economic, Immigrant: Education, LGBTQIA+, The Arts
Setting: United States (New York City)
Character’s New Arrival/New American Status: Immigrant
Book Creator(s) Connection to the Community Represented: Own Voices/Lived Experience
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