Ten Contemporary Novels on the Immigrant Experience in America.

by Akhtar, Ayad

Book - 2012

A young Pakistani boy, whose parents left the fundamentalists behind when they came to America, finds transformation and a path to happiness through a family friend, Mina, who shows him the beauty and power of the Quran. A young Pakistani boy, whose parents left the fundamentalists behind when they came to America, finds transformation and a path to happiness through a family friend, Mina, who shows him the beauty and power of the Quran. Show less

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The Arrival

by Tan, Shaun

Graphic Novel - 2007

In this wordless graphic novel, a man leaves his homeland and sets off for a new country, where he must build a new life for himself and his family. In this wordless graphic novel, a man leaves his homeland and sets off for a new country, where he must build a new life for himself and his family. Show less

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The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears

by Mengestu, Dinaw

Book - 2006

Seventeen years ago, Sepha Stephanos fled the Ethiopian Revolution after witnessing soldiers beat his father to the point of certain death, selling off hi...Show more Seventeen years ago, Sepha Stephanos fled the Ethiopian Revolution after witnessing soldiers beat his father to the point of certain death, selling off his parents' jewelry to pay for passage to the United States. Now he finds himself running a grocery store in a poor African-American neighborhood in Washington, D.C. His only companions are two fellow African immigrants who share his feelings of frustration with and bitter nostalgia for their home continent. He realizes that his life has turned out completely different and far more isolated from the one he had imagined for himself years ago. Show less

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Behold the Dreamers

by Mbue, Imbolo

Book - 2017

The novel tackles themes of family, race and the American Dream as it tells the tale of Jonga, a West African who finds a job as a chauffeur for a high le...Show more The novel tackles themes of family, race and the American Dream as it tells the tale of Jonga, a West African who finds a job as a chauffeur for a high level executive at Lehman Brothers. Jongas wife is hired by the execs wife and the family become close. But Jongas life in America takes an incredibly challenging turn when the 2008 financial meltdown happens.The novel tackles themes of family, race and the American Dream as it tells the tale of Jonga, a West African who finds a job as a chauffeur for a high level executive at Lehman Brothers. Jongas wife is hired by the execs wife and the family become close. But Jongas life in America takes an incredibly challenging turn when the 2008 financial meltdown happens. Show less

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The Book of Unknown Americans

A Novel

by Henr©Uquez, Cristina

eBook - 2014

Moving from Mexico to America when their daughter suffers a near-fatal accident, the Riveras confront cultural barriers, their daughter's difficult recovery and her developing relationship with a Panamanian boy. Moving from Mexico to America when their daughter suffers a near-fatal accident, the Riveras confront cultural barriers, their daughter's difficult recovery and her developing relationship with a Panamanian boy. Show less

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The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

by Díaz, Junot

Book - 2008

Oscar, an overweight Dominican from a New Jersey ghetto, dreams of becoming a writer and finding love, but a Fuku curse has haunted his family for generations, and may well prevent him from attaining his desires. Oscar, an overweight Dominican from a New Jersey ghetto, dreams of becoming a writer and finding love, but a Fuku curse has haunted his family for generations, and may well prevent him from attaining his desires. Show less

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Family Life

by Sharma, Akhil

Book - 2014

We meet the Mishra family in Delhi in 1978, where eight-year-old Ajay and his older brother Birju play cricket in the streets, waiting for the day when th...Show more We meet the Mishra family in Delhi in 1978, where eight-year-old Ajay and his older brother Birju play cricket in the streets, waiting for the day when their plane tickets will arrive and they and their mother can fly across the world and join their father in America. America to the Mishra's is, indeed, everything they could have imagined and more: when automatic glass doors open before them, they feel that surely they must have been mistaken for somebody important. Pressing an elevator button and the elevator closing its doors and rising, they have a feeling of power at the fact that the elevator is obeying them. Life is extraordinary until tragedy strikes, leaving one brother severely brain-damaged and the other lost and virtually orphaned in a strange land. Ajay, the family s younger son, prays to a God he envisions as Superman, longing to find his place amid the ruins of his family's new life. Show less

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A Free Life

by Jin, Ha

Book - 2007

We follow the Wu family - father Nan, mother Pingping, and son Taotao - as they fully sever their ties with China in the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and begin a new, free life in the United States. We follow the Wu family - father Nan, mother Pingping, and son Taotao - as they fully sever their ties with China in the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and begin a new, free life in the United States. Show less

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Girl in Translation

by Kwok, Jean

Book - 2010

Caught between the pressure to succeed in America, her duty to their family, and her own personal desires, Kimberly Chang, an immigrant girl from Hong K...Show more Caught between the pressure to succeed in America, her duty to their family, and her own personal desires, Kimberly Chang, an immigrant girl from Hong Kong, learns to constantly translate not just her language but herself back and forth between the worlds she straddles. Show less

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We Need New Names

A Novel

by Bulawayo, NoViolet

eBook - 2013

Follows ten-year-old Zimbabwe native, Darling, as she escapes the closed schools and paramilitary police control of her homeland in search of opportunity and freedom with an aunt in America. Follows ten-year-old Zimbabwe native, Darling, as she escapes the closed schools and paramilitary police control of her homeland in search of opportunity and freedom with an aunt in America. Show less

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