In this powerful debut novel set in the spring of 2000, Rahela Nayebzadah introduces three unforgettable characters: Beh, Shabnam and Alif. In a world swirling with secrets, racism and danger we watch through the eyes of these three children as Nayebzadah's family of Afghan immigrants try to find their way in an often uncaring Canadian society. But as the sexual assault of thirteen-year-old Beh spirals into a series of terrible events that threaten to unleash the past and destroy the family, the reader is left wondering who is the monster child? Is it Beh, who says she is called a disease? Is it Shabnam, who cries tears of blood? Is it Alif, who declares, "We are a family of monsters"? Or are the monsters all around us?

A mother of two, Rahela Nayebzadah holds a PhD in the Faculty of Education from the University of British Columbia. Currently, she is a schoolteacher. Her autobiographical novel, Jeegareh Ma (2012), was based on her family's migration to Canada from Afghanistan.

Rahela Nayebzadah's profile page

• Short-listed, Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize – BC and Yukon Book Prizes
• Short-listed, Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize – BC and Yukon Book Prizes

"In Monster Child, Nayebzadah has struck a careful balance between bloodletting and bloodbath. With vividly drawn characters, richly explored culture and precise renderings of the spaces these characters inhabit – both internal and external – Monster Child breathes."

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"This is the most powerful and emotional book I have ever read in my life."

Canadian Book Addict

"Nayebzadah packs a complicated family history into this short novel, rife with trauma . . . from the beginning until the end."

"It is a book that examines bonds of blood and dares readers to ask which is the greater foe — the monsters in the world around us, or the monsters lurking within."

Hamilton Review of Books

“[Monster Child] packs a big narrative wallop. To some extent it is a novel about the Afghan immigrant experience in Canada.”

The Ormsby Review

"Monster Child is a brief, intense attack of a novel capable of leaving one breathless and uncomfortably provoked – and this isn’t a bad thing. Discomfort challenges you. It can change you."

The Miramichi Reader