The business of selling books extends far beyond the text compressed between the covers. Consumers are drawn to authors with backstories as compelling as the yarns they weave with language. Hafsah Faizal, a rising young adult author, is somehow exemplary of this trend and an exception to it. As a niqabi—a Muslim woman that wears a face veil—Faizal's lifestyle immediately lends her an enigmatic edge. Behind the veil, however, Faizal is an ordinary woman from Texas who is sublimely skilled in spinning a narrative. Her debut novel We Hunt the Flame, which went on to become a best-seller, arrived with the confidence and polish of an author with a few decades of hits under their belt.
Faizal helped enhance the visibility of Muslim women everywhere when she became the first niqabi to grace the 2020 edition of Forbes' 30 under 30 list. Earlier this year, Faizal released We Free the Stars, the sequel and final chapter to her Sands of Arawiya duology, and began her next novel: A Tempest of Tea. With her website branding A Tempest of Tea as "King Arthur meets Peaky Blinders" it's safe to say that Faizal might have another hit on her hands.
