Looking for a good book about immigration? Readers contributed over two dozen books they love and endorse to create an eclectic literature list to expand your understanding of immigration.
Amazing list, thanks for sharing everyone and thanks Austin for putting this together! I would like to add a plug for my book that came out this past year, Detention Empire: Reagan's War on Immigrants and the Seeds of Resistance (UNC Press): https://uncpress.org/book/9781469669861/detention-empire/.
If I may, I also highly recommend supporting and uplifting the voices of the undocumented community. I am a contributor for La Cuenta, this wonderful Newsletter that curates essays about the undocumented experience in America. You can find interviews and first account stories about being an immigrant, a child of immigrants, or working within the community.
Austin: Thanks for doing this! A great reading list. Here some other suggestions:
A Map is Only One Story: Twenty Writers on Immigration, Family, and the Meaning of Home, edited by Nicole Chung and Mensah Demary (short stories)
Undocumented, by Dan-el Padilla Peralta (autobiography)
Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngoni Adichie (novel)
Also, here is an immigration book list complied by LIRS: https://www.lirs.org/books-about-immigration/
Steve Yale-Loehr
Thank you for this wonderful gift! I also add Jenny Erpenbeck’s novel Go, Went, Gone. https://amp.theguardian.com/books/2017/sep/23/go-went-gone-review-jenny-erpenbeck
Amazing list, thanks for sharing everyone and thanks Austin for putting this together! I would like to add a plug for my book that came out this past year, Detention Empire: Reagan's War on Immigrants and the Seeds of Resistance (UNC Press): https://uncpress.org/book/9781469669861/detention-empire/.
The Line Becomes a River. By Francisco Cantu
The Dispossessed by John Washington
The Land of Open Graves. By Jason De Leon
Across the Wire. By Luis Alberto Urrea
Children of the Land. By Castillo
Separated by Jacob Subaroff
Sand and Blood. By John Carlos Frey
The Book of Rosy by Rosarya Paulo Cruz
Unforgetting. By Roberto Lovato
Against the Wall. By Jenn Budd
The Devil’s Highway. By Luis Alberto Urrea
Solito, Solita: Crossing Borders with Youth Refugees from Central America
The death of Josseline by Margaret Regan
Voices of the Border
Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario;
The Ungrateful Refugee by Dina Nayeri
Border Hacker, by Levi Vonk
A Land of Hard Edges, by Peg Bowden
The Distance Between Us, by Reyna Grande
The Death and Life of Aida Hernandez, by Aaron Bobrow-Strain
Dear America, by Jose Antonio Vargas
Solita by Javier Zamora
Floaters by Espada Martin
The Marauders:Standing Up to Vigilantes in the American Borderlands by Patrick Strickland.
The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
Migrating to Prison by Cesar Cuauhtemoc and Gar in Hernandez
My Boy Will Die of Sorrow by Efren Olivares
Border Hacker by Levi Vonk with Axel Kirschner
Asylum by Edafe Okporo
Nobody is Protected by Reece Jones
What a diverse selection thank you!
If I may, I also highly recommend supporting and uplifting the voices of the undocumented community. I am a contributor for La Cuenta, this wonderful Newsletter that curates essays about the undocumented experience in America. You can find interviews and first account stories about being an immigrant, a child of immigrants, or working within the community.
https://open.substack.com/pub/lacuenta?r=1tjcrp&utm_medium=ios