Usborne inks Àbíké-Íyímídé and Jaigirdar's YA Muslim rom-com

Usborne has nabbed a “joy-filled, pitch-perfect” Muslim rom-com collaboration from two of the biggest rising stars in British and Irish YA fiction, Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé and Adiba Jaigirdar.

Fiction director Rebecca Hill and senior commissioning editor Becky Walker acquired UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) for Four Eids and a Funeral, plus a further untitled rom-com, in a two-book deal with Zoë Plant at The Bent Agency acting on behalf of Àbíké-Íyímídé, and Jaigirdar’s agent, Uwe Stender from Triada US.

Londoner Àbíké-Íyímídé is a New York Times and IndieBound-bestselling author. Her novel, Ace of Spades, was the UK’s top-selling YA début in 2021, won the YA Books Are My Bag Readers Award and the NAACP Image Award for an Outstanding Work for Youth/Teens.

Dublin-based Jaigirdar won last year’s YA Book Prize with Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating⁠ – for which Ace of Spades was also shortlisted – and her other titles include the upcoming The Dos and Donuts of Love and The Henna Wars, the latter of which Time magazine selected as one of the 100 greatest YA books of all time.

Four Eids and a Funeral centres around Said Hossain and Tiwa Olatunji, who used to be inseparable but haven’t spoken after an incident during Eid many years ago. Then disaster strikes when the Islamic Centre in Said’s and Tiwa’s town accidentally burns down. Tiwa has an idea of how to bring the centre back, but she needs Said’s help. Will the two’s feelings, long thought buried, come back?

Hill said: “Faridah and Adiba have written a clever enemies-to-lovers romance that is the perfect read. With jump-off-the-page characters, an important community project at its heart and a compelling love story, Four Eids and a Funeral has everything we look for in a YA romance, and will be adored by the BookTok audience.”

Àbíké-Íyímídé and Jaigirdar added: “The two of us have been best friends for almost seven years now and we’ve always wanted to write something together. It felt right to write a story that takes back the narrative of Muslims in the media, and centres Black and brown Muslims with nuance.”