Towelhead cover art

Towelhead

A Novel

Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Towelhead

By: Alicia Erian
Narrated by: Zein Khleif
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £14.99

Buy Now for £14.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

The story of a girl failed by her parents and by a conflicted America, Towelhead is an ultimately redemptive and moving work that no one can afford to ignore.

The year is 1991. When Jasira's mother finds out what has been going on between her boyfriend and her 13-year-old daughter, she has to make a choice—and chooses to send Jasira off to Houston, Texas, to live with her father.

A remote disciplinarian prone to explosive rages, Jasira's father is unable to show his daughter the love she craves—and far less able to handle her feelings about her changing body.

Bewildered by extremes of parental scrutiny and neglect, Jasira begins to look elsewhere for affection, but Saddam Hussein has invaded Kuwait, and high school has become a lonely place for a "towelhead". When her father meets, and forbids her to see, her boyfriend, it becomes lonelier still.

But there is always Mr. Vuoso—a neighboring army reservist whose son, Jasira, babysits. Mr. Vuoso, as Jasira discovers, has an extensive collection of Playboy magazines. And he doesn't seem to think there's anything wrong with Jasira's body at all.

Painfully funny, tender, and sexually charged, Towelhead is that rare thing: a glorious novel unafraid to take risks.

©2005 Alicia Erian (P)2022 Audible, Inc.
Fiction Genre Fiction Middle East Funny

Listeners also enjoyed...

Find Layla cover art
Snap Out of It cover art
Pictures of You cover art
Beauty and the Boss cover art
Honey in the Marrow cover art
Beside Herself cover art
When You Were Older cover art
After Midnight cover art
Someone Else's Fairytale cover art
Tully cover art
Home Games cover art
Portland Devils Boxed Set cover art
Rutledge Historical Society Cozy Mystery - Books 1-4 cover art
When the World Didn't End cover art
The Year of Discovery Box Set cover art
The Magic of Found Objects cover art
No reviews yet