Immigrant or Refugee Experience

Read about the challenges, bittersweet joys, and unique triumphs of those who leave their homeland to forge new lives elsewhere.

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Updated May 27, 2026
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Solito : a memoir
Zamora, Javier
Paper Book
New York Times Bestseller * Read With Jenna Book Club Pick as seen on Today * Winner of the Los Angeles Times Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiography * Winner of the American Library Association Alex Award * A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Century
Hijab butch blues : a memoir
H, Lamya
Paper Book
A queer hijabi Muslim immigrant survives her coming-of-age by drawing strength and hope from stories in the Quran in this "raw and relatable memoir that challenges societal norms and expectations" (Linah Mohammad, NPR). "A masterful, must-read contribution to conversations on...
The naked don't fear the water : an underground journey with Afghan refugees
Aikins, Matthieu
Paper Book
Winner of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting · A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice  "This is a book of radical empathy, crossing many borders--not just borders that separate nations, but also borders of form, borders of meaning, and borders of possibility. It...
A man of two faces : a memoir, a history, a memorial
Nguyen, Viet Thanh
Paper Book
LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD The highly original, blistering, and unconventional memoir by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sympathizer, which has now sold over one million copies worldwide With insight, humor, formal invention, and lyricism,...
A map of future ruins : on borders and belonging
Markham, Lauren
Paper Book
"This stunning meditation on nostalgia, heritage, and compassion asks us to dismantle the stories we've been told--and told ourselves--in order to naturalize the forms of injustice we've come to understand as order." --Leslie Jamison, author of The Empathy Exams   When...
Heart of fire : an immigrant daughter's story
Hirono, Mazie
Paper Book
"Heart of Fire is a revelatory, evocative, deeply moving book." -Washington Post "Amazing . . . a memoir I really loved." -Secretary Hillary Clinton, "You and Me Both" podcast "A beautiful book."-Trevor Noah, The Daily Show The...
Fencing with the king : a novel
Abu-Jaber, Diana
Paper Book
The King of Jordan is turning 60! How better to celebrate the occasion than with his favorite pastime-fencing-and with his favorite sparring partner, Gabriel Hamdan, who must be enticed back from America, where he lives with his wife and his daughter, Amani. Amani, a divorced poet, jumps...
My side of the river : a memoir
Gutierrez, Elizabeth Camarillo
Paper Book
A New York Times Editor's PickA People Magazine Best Book to Read in February A Goodreads Most Anticipated Book of 2024 "My Side of the River is both fierce and poetic. It brilliantly reframes border writing while embracing nature and...
The great escape : a true story of forced labor and immigrant dreams in America
Soni, Saket
Paper Book
A New York Times Notable Book of 2023 Shortlisted for the 2023 Moore Prize The astonishing story of immigrants lured to the United States from India and trapped in forced labor--an "eye-opening" "must-read" told by the...
The committed
Nguyen, Viet Thanh
Paper Book
The sequel to The Sympathizer, which won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction and went on to sell over a million copies worldwide, The Committed tells the story of "the man of two minds" as he comes as a refugee to France and turns his hand to capitalism. The long-awaited new novel from one...
Hard by a great forest
Vardiashvili, Leo
Paper Book
ONE OF NPR's "BOOKS WE LOVE" 2024 NAMED ONE OF THE OBSERVER'S 10 BEST NEW NOVELISTS FOR 2024 "The stakes could barely be higher in Leo Vardiashvili's propulsive page-turner...It's a spellbinding achievement."--The Financial Times "Has a...
When they tell you to be good : a memoir
Shakur, Prince
Paper Book
A TIME, Washington Post, Amazon, BuzzFeed, Poets & Writers, Lambda Literary, Publishers Weekly, them, The Week, Book Riot, Philadelphia Inquirer, Book and Film Globe, AllArts, and Debutiful Best Book of Fall Winner of the Hurston/Wright Crossover Award
We were dreamers : an immigrant superhero origin story
Liu, Simu
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The star of Marvel's first Asian superhero film, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, tells his own origin story of being a Chinese immigrant, his battles with cultural stereotypes and his own identity, becoming a TV star, and landing the role of a...
A season of light : a novel
Iromuanya, Julie
Paper Book
For fans of Behold the Dreamers, comes a compelling novel--applauded by the New York Times Book Review as "luminous. . . Iromuanya is a spectacular storyteller"--about a tightly bound Nigerian family living in Florida and the wounds that get passed down from generation to...
The Persians : a novel
Mahloudji, Sanam
Paper Book
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION and THE BOLLINGER EVERYMAN WODEHOUSE PRIZE Five women from a once-illustrious Iranian family grapple with change--both personal and in the world around them--in this "whip-smart...huge-hearted, and sharp-toothed...joy of a debut"...
The manicurist's daughter : a memoir
Lieu, Susan
Paper Book
An emotionally raw memoir about the crumbling of the American Dream and a daughter of refugees who searches for answers after her mother dies during plastic surgery. Susan Lieu has long been searching for answers. About her family's past and about her own future. Refugees from...
A great country : a novel
Gowda, Shilpi Somaya
Paper Book
#1 International Bestseller Longlisted for the Aspen Words Literary Prize & New American Voices Award Amazon Top 10 Editors Pick Named a Best Book of the Year by Elle, Cosmo, Real Simple, Glamour, Conde Nast,...
Citizenship: Notes on an American Myth
Hernandez, Daisy
Paper Book
A provocative, personal, blazingly intelligent examination of one of the most vexing questions facing the United States today- Who is, and should be, a citizen? " A fascinating, urgently needed new book."-Chicago Tribune "How did 'Give me your tired,...
Kiss her goodbye
Gardner, Lisa
Paper Book
Frankie Elkin is called to Tucson, Arizona to find a missing Afghan refugee whose friend suspects she is in grave danger--before it is too late--in this mystery thriller from a New York Times bestselling author. "Timely and completely gripping." --Louise Penny,...
What will people think? : a novel
Hamdan, Sara
Paper Book
A Jimmy Fallon's Book Club Finalist Mia's secret comedy career, forbidden office crush, and a long-guarded family secret take center stage, threatening her newfound confidence and her one shot at fame in this hilarious, heartfelt coming-of-age story perfect for fans of...
Year of the Water Horse: A Memoir
Page, Janice
A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITOR'S CHOICE A warm and witty memoir about the ever-changing relationships between mothers, mothers-in-law, and daughters that traverses two continents and multiple generations of two disparate yet connected families. ...
Good People
Sabit, Patmeena
"A thrilling tour de force of a novel. I'll be recommending this book to everyone."--ANN PATCHETT "[A] gorgeous and powerful debut."--TOMMY ORANGE, The New York Times "A stunning read."--KHALED HOSSEINI "Utterly addictive, Good People will have...
The lies they told
Wiseman, Ellen Marie
Paper Book
A Simultaneous Hardcover Edition--Also Available as Trade Paperback Original In rural 1930s Virginia, a young immigrant mother fights for her dignity and those she loves against America's rising eugenics movement - when widespread support for policies of prejudice drove...
The cost of being undocumented : one woman's reckoning with America's inhumane math
Dick, Alix
Paper Book
An undocumented activist and a social scientist come together to tally of the structural costs of undocumented life An inhumane math pervades this country: even as our government extracts labor and often taxes from undocumented workers, it excludes these same workers from its...

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