First-time author S.J. Laidlaw draws heavily on her experiences living in Pakistan (she now resides in Toronto) to examine the struggles of a troubled teen thrust into the unfamiliar – and sometimes dangerous – world of a diplomat’s daughter in Islamabad.

Emma, her older brother, and her little sister have been shunted between diplomatic compounds around the world by their workaholic mother. Fed up with tagging along, their writer father stays behind at the previous posting in Manila, taking up with the maid. As a result, 16-year-old Emma arrives in Pakistan with a surfeit of angst and the feeling that her “skin has become this fragile membrane, barely containing the anger that seethes beneath.”

Emma’s fury overwhelms everything: she cuts herself off from email, friends, and family, and distrusts the motives of everyone at her new school. Her only companions are an old gardener who teaches her how to make tea and a strange American girl. On top of it all, Emma’s hormones are sent into overdrive by an extraordinarily handsome, extremely rich local boy named Mustapha, who is, unfortunately, engaged to an equally upper-class (and jealous) girl.

The first half of the book sets all this up, while the second half tears it down. Emma’s American friend is sent away, Mustapha and Emma kiss, and it is revealed that his fiancée works teaching slum kids, proving she is more than the spoiled rich girl she at first appears to be. The complex relationships are resolved in a dramatic night of rioting and danger.

An Infidel in Paradise is a very well-written evocation of both a tormented teen and the exotic setting she finds herself in, but Emma’s anger is a little too conveniently overwhelming, and paradoxically vanishes a bit too easily. However, teen readers will relate to Emma’s struggles and learn much from this excellent portrayal of culture clash.