Published by: HarperCollins
Release date: June 5, 2018
ISBN 13: 978-00622445735

Buy: Parnassus (order a Signed, Personalized Copy) | Bookshop | Amazon

NPR Best Book of 2018 
Bank Street Best Book of the Year

“This joyously exuberant tale will speak to readers who enjoy a blend of barbed humor and poignant reflection. An excellent choice for all YA shelves.” – School Library Journal, STARRED Review

“Mariam Sharma Nails the Fun Road Trip Vibe – For all of its facing of issues, Mariam Sharma feels like a celebration of being young and on the road with good friends by your side…a fast read that’s fun, political, and the perfect addition to a summer travel bag.” – NPR

“Sheba Karim has done it again! Funny, heartwarming, and achingly real, Mariam Sharma Hits the Road is the road-trip novel everyone needs to be reading right now.” – Sandhya Menon, New York Times bestselling author of When Dimple Met Rishi and From Twinkle, With Love

Mariam Sharma Hits the Road is hilarious and heartfelt, powerful, tender, and so much fun.  Karim’s writing is like a jolt of electricity on the page, leaping with truth and a perfectly dark humor…This is a beautiful book that’s destined to become a road trip classic.” – Margo Rabb, author of Kissing in America.

The summer after her freshman year in college, Mariam is looking forward to working and hanging out with her best friends: irrepressible and beautiful Ghazala and religious but closeted Umar. But when a scandalous photo of Ghaz appears on a billboard in Times Square, Mariam and Umar come up with a plan to rescue her from her furious parents. And what better escape than New Orleans?

The friends pile into Umar’s car and start driving south, making all kinds of pit stops along the way–from a college drag party to a Muslim convention, from alarming encounters at roadside diners to honky-tonks and barbeque joints.
Along with the adventures, the fun banter, and the gas station junk food, the friends have some hard questions to answer on the road. With her uncle’s address in her pocket, Mariam hopes to learn the truth about her father (and to make sure she didn’t inherit his talent for disappearing). But as each mile of the road trip brings them closer to their own truths, they know they can rely on each other, and laughter, to get them through.