Yassmin Abdel-Magied’s Listen Layla absolutely grabbed me with it’s combination of deep questioning and heart on its sleeve social conscience.Yassmin Abdel-Magied is a Sudanese-Australian writer, broadcaster and social advocate. She trained as a mechanical engineer and worked on oil and gas rigs around Australia for years before becoming a writer and broadcaster. She has published a memoir, Yassmin's Story, as well as a book for younger readers, You Must Be Layla.Layla Hussein is a precocious inventor. At just fourteen Layla has helped steer her school team to the international Grand Designs Tourismo being held in Germany.With the holidays ahead and invention of her mind, LAyla is blindsided when her Grandmother falls ill and her whole family must quickly pack and travel to Sudan to be with their family.Layla can’t support the team from halfway around the world, but can she really just give up her dreams to nurse her sick Grandma?I think it’s a truism that adolescence is a time of questioning. I’m pretty sure I’m still working through some of the big questions that first occurred to me as a teenager. And that’s what makes LIsten Layla so engaging.In Layla, Yassmin Abdel Magied, opens up the door to questions of personal and social identity, belonging and responsibility. These are questions that we don’t always do well discussing as a nation, with our beer soaked jingoism more often than not getting in the way of true openness and debate.Through Layla we are exposed to the destabilising notion that identity is not some label you wear but an ongoing discourse between aspects of yourself.At home in Brisbane Layla has her friends and her inventing which is opening up her world. Yet she also must deal with her difference; as she catches the bus, or just attends a school meeting she is reminded that others see her differently to the Australia they want to believe in.Arriving in Sudan Layla finds she is not quite Sudanese enough for people either; her Arabic is accented and her passionate attitude is destined to see her get into trouble as she discovers Khartoum is not Brisbane.Listen, Layla is set against the Sudanese uprising of 2018/19 that saw pro-democracy protesters overthrow the repressive military government through non-violent civil disobedience. Abdel-Magied uses this historical backdrop to great effect highlighting the intergenerational attitudes and underscoring the power of youth.Within this space Layla is forced to confront her reality and consider the wider world she lives in. It’s powerful to consider the challenges to identity and questions of responsibility that Abdel-Magied sets out.With almost half of Australian’s either born overseas or with a parent who was born overseas our national identity cannot simply be summed up by lamingtons and vegemite sandwiches. As Layla confronts her commitment to the Sudanese revolution she in turn questions what is her responsibility to first nations people when she returns to Brisbane.These aren’t questions that are limited to adolescence and Listen Layla is a timely reminder that in the face of injustice there is always work to be done.Listen, Layla is technically YA but as I always end up saying; this is a book for everyone, full of ideas and questions that we can all benefit from considering.