The Good Immigrant USA

GUARDIAN MUST READ BOOKS OF 2019

'The strength of this collection is in its diversity - of gender, sexuality, privilege, experience and writing style. . . It showcases the joy, empathy, fierceness needed to adopt the country as one's own.' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

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An urgent collection of essays by first and second-generation immigrants, exploring what it's like to be othered in an increasingly divided America.

From Trump's proposed border wall and travel ban to the marching of White Supremacists in Charlottesville, America is consumed by tensions over immigration and the question of which bodies are welcome. In this much-anticipated follow-up to the bestselling UK edition, hailed by Zadie Smith as 'lively and vital', editors Nikesh Shukla and Chimene Suleyman hand the microphone to an incredible range of writers whose humanity and right to be in the US is under attack.

Chigozie Obioma unpacks an Igbo proverb that helped him navigate his journey to America from Nigeria. Jenny Zhang analyzes cultural appropriation in nineties fashion, recalling her own pain and confusion as a teenager trying to fit in. Fatimah Asghar describes the flood of memory and emotion triggered by an encounter with an Uber driver from Kashmir. Alexander Chee writes of a visit to Korea that changed his relationship to his heritage. These writers, and the many others in this singular collection, share powerful personal stories of living between cultures and languages while struggling to figure out who they are and where they belong.

By turns heartbreaking and hilarious, troubling and uplifting, the essays in The Good Immigrant USA come together to create a provocative, conversation-sparking, multivocal portrait of America now.

Essays from:
Porochista Khakpour
Nicole Dennis-Benn
Rahawa Haile
Teju Cole
Priya Minhas
Wale Oyejide
Fatimah Asghar
Tejal Rao
Maeve Higgins
Krutika Mallikarjuna
Jim St. Germain
Jenny Zhang
Chigozie Obioma
Alexander Chee
Yann Demange
Jean Hannah Edelstein
Chimene Suleyman
Basim Usmani
Daniel Jose Older
Adrian Villar Rojas
Sebastian Villar Rojas
Dani Fernandez
Fatima Farheen Mirza
Susanne Ramirez de Arellano
Mona Chalabi
Jade Chang