Sixteen-year-old Emma, daughter of a Canadian diplomat, has moved from country to country all her life, but after her parents' divorce, she is forced to move from the Philippines to a diplomatic compound in Islamabad, where her mother has been posted.
Emma resents the numerous restrictions, the loss of her friends, and the dullness of life in Pakistan. She is angry about her father's desertion and her mother's constant work-related absences. She alienates other students on the first day at her new school when she gives an honest answer to the question, "How are you enjoying Pakistan?" but she eventually makes some tentative friendships and tries to address some of the poverty-related issues around her.
Trouble brews, though, in the form of political tensions and her own ill-advised attraction to a handsome Pakistani classmate which leads to trouble.
However, the novel ends on a hopeful note with Emma reaching out to her family and new friends.
Call # YA LAIDLAW, S.J.
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