Good Muslim Boy

By: Osamah Sami

Narrated by: Osamah Sami, David Tredinnick

Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's Summary

Meet Osamah Sami: a schemer, a dreamer and a madcap antihero of spectacular proportions whose terrible life choices keep leading to cataclysmic consequences...despite his best laid plans to be a good Muslim boy.

By the age of 13, Osamah had survived the Iran-Iraq war, peddled fireworks and chewing gum on the Iranian black market, proposed 'temporary marriage' not once but three times, and received countless floggings from the Piety Police for trying to hold hands with girls in dark cinemas.

And the trouble didn’t stop when Osamah immigrated to Australia.

As much as he tried to be a good Muslim boy - his father was the lead cleric in Melbourne, after all - life was short, and there were beaches with girls in bikinis to skip school for, a medical degree to fake because the son of a cleric should become a doctor, and an arranged marriage to run away from because his heart belonged to someone else.

Good Muslim Boy is a hilarious and heartbreaking memoir of loss, love and family. It's about what we'll do to live up to expectations - and what we must do to live with ourselves.

©2015 Osamah Sami (P)2016 Bolinda

Funny, heartwarming and one of the best

What did you love best about Good Muslim Boy?

It made me realise we are all the same, naughty boys are naughty the world over, young men have the same fears and worries and family is important

What did you like best about this story?

The journey made by Osamah from a child to adult and all the incredible problems that beset him everywhere.

Which character – as performed by Osamah Sami and David Tredinnick – was your favorite?

Osamah himself obviously and he was the perfect peson to narrate. But I had a great admiration for his father who dealt with his (shall we say wayward) son in a very sympathetic and caring way. As a leading cleric this surprised me.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

A Good Muslim Boy is fine, perhaps Trying to be a Good Muslim Boy might be more accurate

Any additional comments?

Osamah is a funny and likeable character. I was lucky enough to hear him talk about his book and he is no different. His narration makes the book so personal and real I absolutly loved everything about it.

Addictive as it is beautiful as it is funny as it as sad as it triumphant as it is...

After having recently watched Ali's Wedding, I stumbled across 'Good Muslim Boy' googling the cast and background to a film and story that had resonated. This book equally did not disappoint and I found myself consuming the entire volume within a couple of days. The narrating by Osamah himself makes the experience even more special.

I would highly recommend this book to everyone but especially the diaspora community who face all the trials and triumphs of moving around the world and working out what it means to 'just be' in new environments. As a Zimbabwean who moved to the UK in my teenage years, I found myself nodding along at the similarity in lived experiences. If, like me, you are also Muslim, this book is even more relatable as you are reminded that we have all faced similar struggles and moments of immense pride in our community, often bridging the gap between worlds that are not as different as those who seek to divide us would have us believe.

Osamah, if you ever read this, please do consider coming to tell your story in London (if you still want to tell it). There would be many of us who would love to see the play too and would cheer on its continued success. Thank you for sharing what you have already shared with us. The world of storytelling is better because of it.