Books about the Immigrant and Refugee Experience

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We have all been strangers in a strange land, the Bible tells us, meaning that all of us, at some point in our lives, will feel displaced. Just as we will experience falling in love, raising children, or growing old, so, too, will we find ourselves at sea in a new place, anxious and exhilarated. It is in that space of loss that no matter where we come from, we all join in our double-edged desire to at once return home and find belonging at our new destination. Each of these books captures an aspect of this universal experience.

Featured Image: @Laboo/Twenty20

A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves

Jason DeParle

Few books can afford to take such a long view of a problem like this one does, in which the author follows the story of one family across many years and continents.
The Odyssey

Homer

Odysseus was indeed a warrior, a hero, a father, and a husband, but the ordeal that defines his journey is the ordeal of a refugee.
The Return (Pulitzer Prize Winner)

Hisham Matar

This tragic book tells, in a lyrical and timeless way, the true tale of how the inescapable shadow of a tyrant can damage several lives across generations.
An American Family

Khizr Khan

This storyteller is as compelling as the story itself, so much so that, in the end, I felt that I’d become a better person as a result of my encounter with him through reading.
A Bintel Brief

Isaac Metzker

Every letter in this bundle of letters (Bintel Brief in Yiddish) is a lesson in the cruelties that immigrants face, as well as the humiliation, the hardships, and the joys they experience as they find their way in America.
A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka

Lev Golinkin

Golinkin’s struggle to flee a country where he was discriminated against for an identity he knew or felt little about only to arrive at a country where he is welcomed for the same identity makes for a highly thought-provoking read.
Featured Book

A Beginner’s Guide to America

Roya Hakakian

Disguised as a guide for newcomers, this lyrical and witty volume takes readers inside the immigrant’s experience and allows them to see how the immigrant sees America and Americans.