Desi Girl

A collection of fascinating, highly relatable memoir-style essays about coming of age and finding your feet as a second-generation Muslim Australian.


As a Pakistani-Australian teenager growing up in Western Sydney, Sarah Malik came of age in the shadow of September 11. At the age of twenty, she moved out of home to begin her life as a university student, young Muslim feminist and journalist.

In this energetic and timely book, Walkley Award-winner Sarah Malik dissects the many layers of identity that have shaped her, from faith, to feminism, race, and class. While navigating religion and family, forging a career in media, and looking for a home of her own, Sarah lays bare the complexities of living between different worlds. She shares stories of working in a newsroom in the age of Islamophobia, studying Arabic in Jordan, mastering the art of swimming, loving Jane Austen and her experiments in the world of 'wellness' and therapy.

Desi Girl explores the power of writing from the margins, and how to find - and take - your place in the world.

About the Author

Sarah Malik is a Walkley-award winning Australian journalist and writer. She has written for The New York Times, The Guardian Australia, The Saturday Paper and The Sydney Morning Herald; and she has presented and produced programs for ABC Radio National. She currently works as a senior writer and presenter at SBS.