New Beginnings

Spring is a natural time to think of new beginnings. While opening windows, cleaning, painting, and planting, we get a sense of fresh possibilities. It also seems like a good time to read about those who have made a truly courageous start -- a journey to a new country with dreams of a better life. The following are some novels that capture a variety of immigrant experiences:

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents (1991) – Julia Alvarez

These fifteen tales vividly chronicle a Dominican family's exile in the Bronx, focusing on the four Garcia daughters' rebellion against their immigrant elders and the difficulties they experience in America.

House of Sand and Fog (1999) – Andre Dubus

This page-turner explores a struggling Iranian immigrant trying to restore his family’s dignity.

Middlesex (2002) – Jeffrey Eugenides

This tale of Greek immigrants’ daughters coming of age in Grosse Pointe, Michigan also explores questions of gender identity.

The Namesake (2003) – Jhumpa Lahiri

Immigrants from Calcutta try to become good Americans while dealing with the unavoidable intergenerational conflicts that result from trying to honor tradition in a new world.

Digging to America (2006) – Anne Tyler

Anne Tyler gives us a complex story about what it is to be an American; Maryam Yazdan, after thirty-five years in this country, must finally come to terms with her “outsider” status.

What Is the What (2006) – Dave Eggers

In this fictionalized memoir, Valentino Achak Deng, one of the so-called Lost Boys, is forced to leave his village in Sudan at the age of seven and journey many miles to finally reach freedom. In America, he finds a life full of both promise and challenges.

A  Free Life(2007) – Ha Jin

The Wu family fully severs ties with China in the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and begins a new, free life in the United States.

Into the Beautiful North (2009) – Luis Alberto Urrea

After watching “The Magnificent Seven,” Naveli, a young Mexican woman in a town whose men have fled north for better opportunities, travels to El Norte to recruit illegal immigrant men to save her village from gangsters.

Girl in Translation (2010) – Jean Kwok

Intelligent, eleven-year-old Kimberly Chang narrates her story about coming from Hong Kong and working with her mother in an illegal sweat shop in Brooklyn. She must translate for her mother and also try to hide her poverty from classmates as she meets both heartbreak and wild success in her new life.

Buddha in the Attic (2011) – Julie Otsuka

Otsuka combines a unique voice and graceful, poetic language to tell the stories of Japanese mail-order brides who arrive in California with little idea of the men and experiences awaiting them.

Open City (2011) – Teju Cole

Feeling adrift after ending a relationship, Julius, a young Nigerian doctor living in New York, takes long walks through the city while listening to the stories of fellow immigrants until a shattering truth is revealed.

All This Talk of Love (2013) – Christopher Castellani

Fifty years after arriving in America, generations of the Grasso family contemplate a trip back to Italy to visit relatives. Secrets, tragedies, and memories are revealed as the plot progresses.  One Library Journal reviewer “defies anyone not to fall in love with the Grassos.”