Bilal Abu has a lot to say, but he's scared to open his mouth. And who could blame him? A 16-year-old Iraqu refugee, he has to contend with his immigrant family's never-ending drama and his fanatical older brother's sexual abuse. And then there's life in his sketchy neighborhood in Kansas City, Missouri, where all the non-Muslim kids think he is a terrorist. When Bilal falls in love with the son of his community's religious leader, things get better - and a whole lot worse.

This is a really intense, emotional and at times very heart-breaking read. Told from Bilal's point of view, the reader experiences everything from community rejection and scorn, sexual abuse, rape, religious fundamentalism and threats to differences in social values/belief systems, homosexuality and what love is really supposed to feel like.

Bilal, and his family, have been through the wringer: A Kurdish family that has seen the result of speaking the truth under Saddam Hussein's political regime, and has had to flee to a new life in America as refugees. We see the older family members - Bilal's Ma and his oldest brother Salim - set in their traditional Kurdish ways while Bilal, his sister Fatima and his older brother Hakim are more accepting of the American way of things. As the story progresses, we learn more details about the abuse Bilal has been subject to by his brother Salim, as well as the reason they fled Iraq. No spoiler here as a glimpse into the abuse is exposed in the first chapter of the book.

At times graphic and with some profanity expressed, this story screams for attention like no other book I have recently read. My heart and soul went out to Bilal as the confusion, the abuse and the feelings of imprisonment mount. The characters, and the situations, are highly realistic - I can visualize this very scenario playing out in an unnamed city as I type this review. Our author has managed to present a myriad of conflicting viewpoints while communicating his story - confusions regarding awakening sexualities, restraining viewpoints of community members, the dismissive nature to brush off real concerns as normal traditional practices, authoritarian family structures, fear of law enforcement and foreign cultural beliefs,.... the list just goes on and on.

Highly recommended, provided you read it with a box of kleenex and a pillow by your side: the kleenex for the scenes you uncontrollably cry through and the pillow so you can punch something soft when your anger reaction requires venting. ( )

I usually prefer a book with a happy ending, told in a light manner and humorous, if possible. Bilal's Bread does nothing with the 'light manner' stuff. It is a book written with a horrific detail on a gay teenage, suffering sexual abuse in the hand of his elder brother. It was disturbing, but yet I find the book is demanding me to turn the pages to find out how the book will conclude. I simply find this book difficult to put down. I read the whole book from the evening till 3.45am, just to know the fate of poor Bilal.

A well-written book on the emotion and characters.

This book is definitely one of my top favorite books in my collection. ( )

A raw, unsettling account of Bilal's sexual abuse at the hands of his older brother. The abuse is unrelenting, graphic, and almost homicidal in its intensity. Added to this is Bilal's realization that he may, in fact, be gay. A moving look at integrating into American culture and a gay coming-of-age account is reduced to violence in the end. ( )

After fleeing Iraq, the Kurdish Abu family have settled in the United States. Salim, the eldest brother, has been deeply damaged by the torture he suffered at the hands of the Iraqi police, and his psychotic rages are becoming increasingly violent. At only 16, the youngest son, Bilal, holds the family secrets close, revealing nothing. But his conflict is deepened by his own sexual awakening, and he begins to direct his rage and frustration on his own body through cutting. A powerful story of a clash of cultures and the power of the individual voice.

Salim, now 26, has been raping his 16-year-old younger brother Bilal since he was 9 years old. ( )