As a first-generation Pakistani Muslim boy growing up on the outskirts of wealthy, white downtown

Toronto, Omer Aziz felt divided between two worlds not quite his own. But after aturning point in his

senior year of high school, Omer had an epiphany: with education, dedication, and sheer determination,

anything is possible. And so began Omer’s stratospheric rise through some of the most prestigious

institutions in the West. But all the while, his own feelings of doubt and insecurity were never far behind.

Now, in Brown Boy, Aziz considers his achievements and poses the questions he couldn’t ask in his youth.

Was assimilation ever really an option? Can anyone truly transcend the perils of race and class? 

Brown Boy is a poetic debut about the price of upward mobility, the pursuit of knowledge, and the politics

of being Brown and coming of age at a time of change and upheaval.