STOLEN MOMENTS OF JOY

In this literary novel, a gay Afghan man grapples with an abusive relationship in America.

Twenty-four-year-old Abdul Ali fled Afghanistan as a teenager, seeking a better life than he had known on the streets of Kabul. Now he lives in Baltimore with his boyfriend, Cliff Edwards, who has a tendency to fly off the handle and smack Abdul in the face when he doesn’t like what he hears. Abdul is humiliated to go to work with visible bruises. He’s a concierge at a hotel near the city’s Inner Harbor, where he uses his off hours to study for the SAT. It’s at the hotel that Abdul meets visiting journalist Tyrique Williams, who has come to Baltimore to cover the recent shooting of an unarmed Black teen. Tyrique and Abdul have immediate chemistry, but soon after hooking up, Tyrique discovers Abdul’s bruises: “ ‘Listen to me, Abdul.’ Tyrique walked over to me and grabbed my shoulder to emphasize what he was about to say. ‘A boyfriend that hits you is just a boy. He’s not a friend.’ ” The encounter doesn’t immediately convince Abdul to leave Cliff, but he continues to admire Tyrique from afar as well as explore other romantic possibilities closer to home. But as West Baltimore erupts into violence over the racist status quo, Abdul is forced to confront the traumas from his past he’s long tried to keep buried. Baika’s vivid prose captures Abdul’s conflicted and often overwhelming emotions, as here when he embraces Tyrique after a long absence: “He wrapped his arms around me. He smelled like a thousand roses had rained over him. Not the usual common rose. Gol-e Mohammadi, with a more penetrating perfume. I took a deep breath to take in as much of him as I could.” The book grapples with a number of heavy issues, including the bacha bazi dancing boys of Afghanistan. The elements at times feel shoehorned together, though for the most part, the novel treats each of them with the appropriate gravity. While not a light read by any means, the book succeeds in dramatizing the ways the traumas of youth can shape adult relationships.

A weighty but engaging and readable tale about escaping the bonds of the past.