The Ocean Would Paint Me Blue

What if you felt like you'd cried all the colours away? The heart-wrenching new story of friendship, loss and identity from the author of international bestseller As Long As the Lemon Trees Grow.


Joining an exclusive high school should be a fresh start for Jihad after her mother's sudden death. But she's the only Muslim student there; her hijab and even her name make her new classmates suspicious.

Only one person treats her with kindness but Jihad can't help questioning his motives. It's hard to trust anyone when she meets indifference or hostility all around her. As tension mounts, she finds refuge in an old sketchbook and in the stories her mama used to tell her. She is determined to focus on making it to art school and a brighter future, but as she starts illustrating her mother's memories, her canvas becomes bigger than she could ever have imagined.

Can Jihad become as resilient as the true meaning of her name, and let the colour back into her life?

An unputdownable story about family, friendship, grief and trust from a masterful writer of the genre.

Review

A searing portrait of a Syrian American teen navigating grief, identity, and systemic injustice in contemporary America ... Magical realism, rooted in a maternal ­lineage of gifted women, adds lyrical depth without overwhelming the contemporary narrative. Katouh's prose captures the weight of ­systemic ­oppression and the fierce resilience it takes to survive. A powerful, ­unflinching ­exploration of ­Islamophobia, identity, and grief. An essential purchase for all collections. ― School Library Journal

I loved this story. I saw myself so clearly in Jihad. Her grief, her loss, her joy, her love. It felt so familiar, so close to home. It's so beautifully written. Zoulfa paints with words, and I expect nothing less from. Because when you give Zoulfa Katouh a pen, magic happens. This is a story about loss, but at its core it is a gorgeous, magical, and heart wrenching story about the power and strength we find in our grief. -- Huda Fahmy, author of Huda F Are You?

A modern classic about what it means to live, to hope, to despair, and to keep living despite everything. With her signature lyrical prose, Zoulfa Katouh paints an achingly beautiful portrait of a young girl in grief and in love. Brace yourself-there will be tears, and they will be worth it. -- Ann Liang, author of I Hope This Doesn't Find You

About the Author

Zoulfa Katouh is a Canadian writer with Syrian roots. A trilingual pharmacist, currently pursuing a master's in drug sciences, Zoulfa is the first Syrian author to be published in both the US and the UK in the young adult category. When she's not talking to herself in the woodland forest, she's drinking iced coffee, baking aesthetic cookies and cakes, and telling everyone who will listen about how BTS paved the way. A dream of hers is to get Kim Nam-joon to read one of her books. As Long As the Lemon Trees Grow is her debut novel.