Protagonist in New Novel 'The Bad Muslim Discount' Is SF State Literature Student

SEATTLE TIMES -- Anvar’s skepticism about the faith he was raised in starts when he’s still a school kid. (“The day I was first told I was damned,” he recalls, “was the day I felt I had been blessed.”) By the time he’s studying literature at San Francisco State University, his default mode of conversation is pun-filled sarcasm peppered with literary and pop culture allusions. This trait sometimes rubs his family and friends the wrong way. When asked by his former high school sweetheart what the hell is wrong with him, his reply is endearingly sassy.

“It’s not one thing,” he says. “It’s more of a cascading malfunctions type of situation.”