Manboobs

Discover the must-read, coming-of-age queer memoir about learning how to love yourself in a world that doesn’t want you to.

‘A beautiful celebration of being different.’ TOM ALLEN

‘An important story, told with a sharp wit and disarming humour’ MOHSIN ZAIDI author of A Dutiful Boy

‘Brilliant, spectacularly witty and genuinely moving. I loved it.’ MATTHEW TODD, author of Straight Jacket

I’m just a man, standing in front of a salad, asking it to be a cake.

What do you do when you’re too gay for Pakistan, too Pakistani to be gay in America and you’re ashamed of your body everywhere?

Even as a young child in Lahore, Komail Aijazuddin knew he was different. Other boys didn’t pirouette off their desks, get bullied for their ‘manboobs’ or spontaneously burst into songs from The Little Mermaid. Other boys didn’t play together like that.

Starved of a crucial part of himself, he ate. And ate. Before long, his own body became another burden to carry everywhere and to hide. Komail began to believe his only chance at a happy, meaningful life would be found elsewhere: in America, land of the free, home of the gays. But he would soon learn that finding happiness takes a lot more than a plane ticket.

This is Aijazuddin’s riotous, intelligent memoir of searching for his place between two worlds while navigating a minefield of expectations, prejudice and self-doubt. In Manboobs, Aijazuddin confidently announces himself as a sharp new voice in humour with his moving, wickedly funny search for love and the bravery required to be yourself.