25 - A Book with a Main Character who is an Immigrant or Refugee

[Nadine in NY]

A book where the main character is an immigrant or refugee.

This is a powerful category. Books that would work range from classics like My Ántonia about immigrants settling the USA plains, to When Stars Are Scattered, a graphic novel memoir about living in a refugee camp.


Listopia list is Here: A Book with a Main Character who is an Immigrant or Refugee

[Victoria]

The Arrival by Shaun Tan - I've had this one sitting in my physical TBR pile for a couple of years

[Erin]

I loved Family Style: Memories of an American from Vietnam- a graphic novel memoir, would definitely recommend

[LeahS]

I'm reading The Good Immigrant which I've been meaning to read for some time.

[Laura Ruth]

A friend highly recommended Djinns.

[Denise]

I think I'll go for The Good Immigrant: 26 Writers Reflect on America, which has the same editor as The Good Immigrant, but neither are available at my library and the first is available on kobo as an ebook or audiobook.

[Brandon]

Thrawn is an immigrant from the Chiss Ascendancy to the Galactic Empire ruled by Emperor Palpatine.

[Erin]

Mishka- just saw this at the bookstore, a kids book about a family's journey from Afghanistan to Netherlands, and their new pet bunny. It looks cute

[Lucy]

I recommend Daughters of Shandong by Eve J. Chung. The author wrote it in honor of her grandmother. It was so relatable and gut wrenching to me because I'm from a similar culture.

[Dea]

Early this year I read two wonderful children's books about immigrant children. They were for our school system's reading quiz bowl, where I'm a judge.

Measuring Up by Lily LaMotte
Unsettled by Reem Faruqi

For adult nonfiction, I enjoyed Homes: A Refugee Story by Abu Bakr al Rabeeah and Winnie Yeung. For historical fiction, I recommend Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford.

[AK]

37 Questions by June Kaye is coming out on Feb 11th, 2025. The FMC is a German-Brazilian dual citizen living in the US. The story is not about her immigration status, though.

(full disclaimer: I'm one of the authors! I hope it's ok to suggest my own book.)

[Catherine]

Erin wrote: "I loved Family Style: Memories of an American from Vietnam- a graphic novel memoir, would definitely recommend"

That sounds great!

Another fantastic graphic novel about an immigrant family from Vietnam is The Best We Could Do.

[Ron]

Was gonna skip because I'm over this topic but since I want to try local stuff I found a book that will work. I did some research and many places said that a location could be considered a character and that will work perfectly for it.

[Bea]

I will be reading The Wind Knows My Name

[Diana]

If you want something a little less traditional, any comic or story centered around Supergirl or Superman could be used for this.

Some that I haven't seen mentioned are:
American Street
Something in Between
When We Left Cuba
The Book of Lost Names
We Were the Lucky Ones

For nonfiction:
In the Country We Love: My Family Divided
Unaccompanied
The New Odyssey: The Story of Europe's Refugee Crisis
Separated: Inside An American Tragedy
City of Dreams: The 400-Year Epic History of Immigrant New York

[Denise]

I’m reading The Many Daughters of Afong Moy

[Lisa Marie]

I will be reading American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins


HAPPY READING!!

[Ron]

If I really wanted to I could read a novel about Superman. He's the ultimate refugee in the world of superheroes.

[Tania]

I read Sing, Wild Bird, Sing by Jacqueline O'Mahony - characters immigrated from Ireland in the 1800's to the US

[Jamie]

Hercule Poirot initially ended up in England as a refugee due to WWI (and then lived there as an immigrant for many years), so just about any of the Poirot novels would work for this category.

[Yoo]

I read Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín for last years challenge which is about an Irish immigrant, Eilis, moving to New York in the 50s.

So I have just finished the follow up Long Island for this prompt, where she is also married into an Italian immigrant family.

[Frogli]

I will probably read The Blue Between Sky and Water, it's been sitting on my tbr for years maybe this time I will actually get round to it

[Diane]

I read The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali

[Jamie]

Has anyone read The Ministry of Time? I think it might fit this prompt. The main character is from Cambodia, living in Great Britain, and works to help "refugees," only they are refugees from time. Only a little bit into it, but I think it works.

[Marie-Eve]

For my french readers, i HIGHLY recommend anyhting by Kim Thuy, but mostly this one Ru

I actually think it was translated here : Ru ( i know its translated i just dont know if im tagging the right one)

I will probably use one of her books that i havent read yet.

[Sherri]

I read The Stationery Shop

[Michele]

Part of A Fall of Marigolds by Susan Meissner takes place on Ellis Island in 1911, so has an immigrant character.

[Sasha]

I would highly recommend When the Angels Left the Old Country for this prompt. It's about the friendship between an angel and a demon who travel from their Polish shtetl to New York in search of a young woman from their town who has gone missing. As well as the angel and demon themselves, most of the characters they meet in New York are immigrants, and the immigrant experience is a key theme.

[Carol]

[Ron]

Going with a re-read for this prompt:

LatinoLand: A Portrait of America's Largest and Least Understood Minority

Read this book last year and it was excellent. It was my #2 favorite of 2024. The paperback was recently released so it got me in the mood to start reading it again.

Latinos are all types of immigrants so it would work for this prompt.

[Sasha]

I'm trying to decide whether or not to count Assembly for this prompt. The main character has never been to Jamaica, where her parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles are from. However, the entire book is about her experience as a second-generation immigrant in the "hostile environment" that successive Conservative governments deliberately created for migrants in the UK (the phrase is expressly used in the book and is a direct quote from one of our prime ministers.) She never feels safe, never feels like she belongs, and spends her whole life trying to meet an impossible standard of the "model" Black British woman. I want to avoid spoilers, but the plot essentially forces her to confront the outcome of that attempt. I feel like it should count, but would be interested in what others think.

[LeahS]

Sasha wrote: "I'm trying to decide whether or not to count Assembly for this prompt. The main character has never been to Jamaica, where her parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles are from. H..."

I would certainly count this. The MC's life experiences stem from her coming from an immigrant family, and I think that the experiences of a second-generation immigrant are in many ways as affected by the process of assimilation as were those of their parents. As you say, there is an environment which seems to be growing more rather than less hostile and that must be very difficult for those who were actually born in this country.

I've read both The Good Immigrant and Exposure for ATY this year, and used the latter for this prompt. Many of the writers in the first book were second-generation immigrants, and while the MC in the second is a first-generation immigrant, she came to England as a small child, so her attitudes are formed as much from her mother's experiences as her own.

[Sasha]

LeahS wrote: "I would certainly count this. The MC's life experiences stem from her coming from an immigrant family"

Thank you, Leah. I think I will count it. As you say, the experiences she describes are determined by her immigrant background. The way subsequent generations are affected is an important part of the context for understanding the impact of these hostile policies and attitudes.

[Diana]

I've been trying my hardest to only use books I already have for this years challenge, so I wound up reading The Winter Orphans for this one. It's primarily about an orphanage run by the Red Cross in Nazi-Occupied France and the Jewish refugees that some of the women helped hide and escape through the Swiss Alps.

[Ron]

The book Welcome to Metropolis: The Prequel Junior Novel comes out this summer.

It's a prequel junior novel to the new Superman movie and Superman is totally the ultimate immigrant. I'll definitely add either this one or some Superman-related book.

[Dubhease]

I took Jamie's suggestion and read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. It was one of her best.

[Denise]

I read The Many Daughters of Afong Moy Jamie Ford

[Britany]

Finished The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden

My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Laura Ruth]

Like several people upthread, I read the essay collection The Good Immigrant: 26 Writers Reflect on America.

http://www.lauraruthloomis.com/whats-...

[Anshita]

I'm reading The Immigrant by Manju Kapur. The blurb reads, "ina is a thirty-year-old English lecturer in New Delhi, living with her widowed mother and struggling to make ends meet. Ananda has recently emigrated to Halifax, Canada; having spent his twenties painstakingly building his career, he searches for something to complete his new life. When Ananda's sister proposes an arranged marriage between the two, Nina is can she really give up her home and her country to build a new life with a husband she barely knows? The consequences of change are far greater than she could have imagined. As the two of them struggle to adapt to married life, Nina's whole world is thrown into question. And as she discovers truths about her husband - both sexual and emotional - her fragile new life in Canada begins to unravel."