Set during the Iran hostage crisis, and pitched as a cross between Darius the Great Is Not Okay and Election, Jasmine Zumideh is a young, Iranian American heroine poised to run for her senior class president, just as an international incident unfolds and sets in motion a series of life-changing events

JASMINE ZUMIDEH NEEDS A WIN
by Susan Azim Boyer
Wednesday Books, November 2022

It’s 1979, and Jasmine Zumideh is ready to get the heck out of her stale, Southern California suburb and into her dream school, NYU, where she’ll major in journalism and cover New York City’s exploding music scene. There’s just one teeny problem: Due to a deadline snafu, she maaaaaaybe said she was Senior Class President-Elect on her application―before the election takes place. But honestly, she’s running against Gerald Thomas, a rigid rule-follower whose platform includes reinstating a dress code―there’s no way she can lose. And she better not, or NYU will rescind her application. But then, an international incident turns the election upside down: a group of students in Iran, fed up with the U.S.’s interference in Iranian politics, takes the American Embassy in Tehran―and the people within it―hostage. And, as the Iran Hostage Crisis dominates the nightly news, her opponent seizes the opportunity to stir up anti-Iranian sentiment at school and turn the electorate against her―with the help of her outspoken brother, who never stops talking about it. Now, as the white lie she told snowballs into an avalanche, Jasmine is stuck between claiming her heritage or hiding it, standing by her outspoken brother or turning her back on him, winning the election or abandoning her dreams for good.

“Whip-smart, funny, and bursting with heart. Jasmine Zumedeh is exactly the kind of protagonist I want to spend pages with.”—Jenn Bennett, author of Alex, Approximately

Susan Azim Boyer writes young adult fiction featuring Iranian American heroines she *never* encountered growing up, who make messy, complicated choices that rapidly snowball into avalanches. JASMINE ZUMIDEH NEEDS A WIN is her young adult fiction debut. She hails from Nebraska but grew up in Los Angeles before spending several years in San Francisco and the next twenty in Sonoma County. She now lives in the Coachella Valley with her husband, Wayne, and her Pug mix, Teddy. Their son, Alec, lives in New York.