Teen angst is universal.
Street of Storytellers, a 2019 young adult novel by
Doug Wilhelm, is populated with young people facing problems some interpersonal and some with huge consequences. The story s protagonist is Luke, an American high schooler in Peshawar, Pakistan, on a court-ordered visit with his divorced father, who s working on a book about an ancient civilization. Luke resents his dad s work and knows little about the tensions that are building in Pakistan in 1984; he wants to listen to Bob Marley on his Walkman, not visit museums or ruins. Then Luke is introduced to Rasheed, who s Pakistani and a devout Muslim. Convinced that the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan is holy, Rasheed is falling under the sway of a nascent jihadist movement in Peshawar. Rasheed s sister, Danisha, is unlike him in every way and eager to get an education, despite their society s restrictions on women. Another central character is Yusuf, an Afghani refugee with a disabled siste