Is There Bacon in Heaven?

April 1, 2022

Actor (e.g., Goon), stand-up comic, and popular host of CBC's Canada Reads, Hassan navigated a childhood encompassing friends of multiple religions and ethnicities and grew up to embrace his own sense of identity as a Muslim, which includes failing to learn Arabic and loving pepperoni. Family and friends can be either supportive or skeptical of his stance, and he still wonders how to explain to his children what being Muslim really means to him. With a 20,000-copy first printing.

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July 18, 2022
“Maybe I look inconsistent at best, hypocritical at worst. But truthfully, I’ve never been more comfortable with who I am,” writes Canadian comedian Hassan in his hilarious debut. Growing up in 1970s New Brunswick, Hassan, despite living in a Muslim Pakistani household, thought of himself as a “white guy” (“I knew ten Blue Rodeo songs by heart, I played ice hockey, I used a Crock-Pot,” he muses) even while his peers were trying to parse his nationality. As an adult, he couldn’t decide on one career, so he chose several, trying culinary arts and information technology, and even acquiring an MBA before finally landing in the stand-up world “because the CBC wanted a diverse voice on a comedy panel.” Hassan’s not afraid to poke fun at himself, delivering laugh-out-loud paeans to pork as he reflects on his heartfelt desire to be a “cultural Muslim” and share that with his children. Likewise, readers will chuckle when, for instance, his 13-year-old daughter inquired why she couldn’t have a bar mitzvah: “Before I could answer, my eleven-year-old laughed at her and said, ‘We’re not Mexican!’ SIGH. Mixing up her bar mitzvahs with her quinceañeras.” Anyone who’s ever felt like a fish out of water will be heartened by this beguiling memoir.