immigration in fiction

Cover image for Alligator and Othere Stories by Dima Alzayat

Alligator and Other Stories by Dima Alzayat: Immigration reprised

This is the second collection I’ve read recently which explores the theme of immigration although my reading experience for each of them was very different. I read a print edition of How to Pronounce Knife whereas Dima Alzayat’s Alligator and Other Stories was my first toe in the Netgalley water, although far from my first […]

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Home Remedies by Xuan Juliana Wang: Shifting cultures

Xuan Juliana Wang’s debut collection comes garlanded with praise from Lauren Groff, herself no slouch when it comes to crafting short stories. Wang explores second-generation immigrants through the lens of experience, having arrived in the States with her parents aged seven. Her collection comprises twelve lengthy stories divided into three sections: Family, Love, and Time

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Cover image for The Americans

The Americans by Chitra Viraraghavan: A sense of belonging

I’m fascinated by fiction about the immigrant experience. From Meera Syal’s Anita and Me and Monica Ali’s Brick Lane to Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche’s Americanah and Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake, novels can tell you so much about the way immigrants see their adoptive country and the way it sees them, helping the rest of us understand

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The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henríquez: A sad story filled with warmth as well as sorrow

The immigrant experience is a rich theme for fiction, one which offers many of us a glimpse into a world that we will never know and, I would like to think, fosters a level of empathy and tolerance apparently unknown to many tabloid editors with their pernicious headlines. Cristina Henríquez’s brilliantly named The Book of

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