This Author Wrote the Bangladeshi American Story She Wished She Had Read as a Teen

When Tashie Bhuiyan was in middle school, she immersed herself in the world of young adult literature after a teacher suggested a few titles to her. “I was reading Twilight in the fifth grade, which you probably shouldn’t be doing,” Bhuiyan recalled. “But I've always grown up loving the genre and loving all the tropes. It’s just always been something I’ve wanted to be involved in.”

But Bhuiyan, who is now 22, was also very aware that the stories she came across did not reflect her experiences as a Bangladeshi American teen from an immigrant family. “I never saw anyone that looked like me or had the same struggles as me,” she said. “So I wanted to write a story for 16-year-old Tashie and for all the other young brown girls out there who have never had stories where they felt like they could truly relate to the main character.”

Counting Down With You, Bhuiyan’s highly anticipated debut novel, was released on May 4. It tells the story of Karina Ahmed, a Bangladeshi American teen from a tight-knit family in Queens, who wrestles with pursuing her dream of studying English and her parents’ expectations. When her parents unexpectedly go on a monthlong vacation to Bangladesh, Karina finds herself spreading her wings — while in a fake relationship with the most notorious bad boy in school.

“I've always loved the fake dating tropes, and I think it's so fun to be able to do all the dating stuff without having to have feelings,” said Bhuiyan. But as her character Karina gets deeper into her fake relationship, she begins to wonder if she has feelings after all.

The FBomb had the chance to chat with Bhuiyan about her debut novel, her unconventional path to getting a book deal, and the joy that comes from writing a story that reflects your own identity.

You were still in college when you wrote this book. Can you tell us a little about what the writing process for Counting Down With You was like?

I wrote the book during my second semester of junior year. So I was taking six classes and interning three days a week and just doing all kinds of things, including social obligations, at the same time. But I felt like it was the right time and the right place to do it. When I sat down and started to write it, it just came out of me. It felt like I couldn’t not tell the story at the time.

How did you find the time to write a full manuscript while juggling school and your internship?

Oh my god, I would just prioritize. I would get to my internship an hour early and sit at the Starbucks next door and write, and if I had an hour between my classes I would sit down in the cafeteria and write, or I would stay up one hour later after finishing my homework and write then. Basically, every time I had a single spare moment I would just sit down and write because I really, really wanted to finish this story.

What was it like querying literary agents?

I had a very unusual querying process on my book — most times it will take a lot longer. I wrote the book in April, and then I started querying in May, which I would not recommend. But when I queried, I got an offer about 10 days later, which was wild and like I still don't know how that happened. It went really, really fast and I found my agent, JL Dermer from New Leaf Literary, who is the literal best. She offered in June and we went out on submission in July and then in August, we got an offer for the book deal in about 16 days.

That’s amazing. It’s also so incredible that one of your first post-college jobs is ‘author.’

Yes, it’s really wild, especially since I was in my senior year when I had the book deal. I actually didn’t take a lot of English classes in college because I wasn’t an English major, but I was in this one English class and the professor was talking about how it’s so hard to get published, blah, blah, blah. And I was just sitting there in the back row thinking, OK.’

That’s interesting that you didn’t major in English because one of the big conflicts in this book is that Karina secretly wants to study literature in undergrad, but she doesn’t know how to tell her parents because they want her to become a doctor.

I had a lot of struggles similar to what Karina went through in this book, but not that specific struggle. I was actually a public relations major in school. My parents didn’t actually say much when I told them I was going to be a PR major. They just said, ‘That’s so disappointing,’ and then we all just moved on with our lives.

One of the loveliest relationships in this book is the one that Karina has with her grandmother, Dadu, and you thank your own grandmother in the book’s acknowledgments for always being there for you. Did you grow up in a multigenerational family the way Karina did?

I didn’t live with my paternal grandma, my Dadu, but she is just the best and so supportive of me. Growing up, I feel like she was always like the adult that I felt I could turn to when I was in trouble or anything was going wrong. She was always the person who said, OK, don't worry about it, it'll be fine.’

So I wanted to capture that kind of relationship in a book. I feel like we don't see a lot of strong grandparent relationships in young adult novels; it seems like it’s more common in books for younger children, so I wanted to put that. I especially wanted to include it because Karina is obviously struggling in her relationship with her parents, but that doesn't mean that every adult in her life is like that.

This story is also striking because we often hear about the familial pressures put on Bangladeshi and other South Asian teens, but this book also gives readers a look at the family pressures put on Ace, the white love interest in this book.

I wanted Ace and Karina to be mirrors of each other so that they could look at each other and, even though they have vastly different experiences, still see each other and understand each other. I feel like they understood the pressures the other was going through because they were [going through it] too, but for different reasons. I wanted them to just know they had each other’s back and that no matter what was going to happen they would come out the other side, knowing that they both did the best that they could.

You’ve also mentioned how important it was to you to create a specifically Bangladeshi American story. What is it like knowing that younger Bangladeshi American teens will have the story you wish you had when you were that age?

I'm just really grateful to have been given the opportunity to create these stories. I think it's super cool Bangladeshi American teens will be able to read this book and think, ‘Wow, I understand this reference,’ or ‘Wow, she looks like me. She talks like me and she calls her grandmother the same thing I call my grandma.’ I think that's a really cool, unique experience that like so many of us have never had until recently.