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The hilarious and piercing memoir about growing up gay in a not-so-gay world.

I’m just a man, standing in front of a salad, asking it to be a cake.

What do you do when you’re too gay for Pakistan, too Pakistani to be gay in America and you’re ashamed of your body everywhere?

How can you find happiness despite years of humiliation, fear and a legion of Brooklyn hipsters who know you only as a queer from Whereveristan?

How do you summon the courage to be yourself no matter where you are?

Even as a young child in Lahore, Komail Aijazuddin knew he was different. Other boys didn’t pirouette off their desks, get bullied for their ‘manboobs’ or spontaneously burst into songs from The Little Mermaid. Other boys didn’t play together like that.

Starved of a crucial part of himself, he ate. And ate. Before long, his own body became another burden to carry everywhere and to hide. Komail began to believe his only chance at a happy, meaningful life would be found elsewhere: in America, land of the free, home of the gays. But he would soon learn that finding happiness takes a lot more than a plane ticket.

This is Aijazuddin’s riotous, intelligent memoir of searching for his place between two worlds while navigating a minefield of expectations, prejudice and self-doubt. In Manboobs, Aijazuddin confidently announces himself as a sharp new voice in humour with his moving, wickedly funny search for love and the bravery required to be yourself.

‘An important story, told with a sharp wit and disarming humour’ MOHSIN ZAIDI

‘Vastly entertaining and wickedly funny’ GREG MARSHALL

© Komali Aijazuddin 2024 (P) Penguin Audio 2024