Immigrant Memoirs

Guillermo Vicente Vidal's memoir chronicles his journey from Castro's Cuba to the United States - a tapestry of his coming of age, a broken family, and disorientation of political unrest. Vidal was barely 10 years old when he proudly shook the hand of Fidel Castro. Although Vidal's parents were once staunch supporters of La Revolucion, they soon found they could no longer keep their sons safe in the new face of Castro's reign, making the difficult decision to send Vidal and his brothers to the US via Operation Peter Pan in 1961.

A story of love, war, and life as a Jewish immigrant in the squalid factories and lively dance halls of New York’s Garment District in the 1930s, My Mother’s Wars is the memoir Lillian Faderman's mother was never able to write. The daughter delves into her mother's past to tell the story of a Latvian girl who left her village for America with dreams of a life on the stage and encountered the realities of her new world: the battles she was forced to fight as a woman, an immigrant worker, and a Jew with family left behind in Hitler’s deadly path.

Khabaar is a food memoir and personal narrative that braids the global journeys of South Asian food through immigration, migration, and indenture. Focusing on chefs, home cooks, and food stall owners, the book questions: What does it mean to belong, and what does belonging in a new place look like in the foods carried over from the old country?

Her dream had become reality: married to her lover, living in a luxurious home on the California coast where her sons would have opportunities that did not exist in her native Croatia, green card in hand so she could teach. Then it all fell apart: the unbridgeable rifts between her and her husband, having to live on her own in a country she barely knew, and, most terrifying, the discovery that her sons were technically in the country illegally and could be deported at a moment's notice.

After a series of incredible, extraordinary events that dramatically changes his life, the author is compelled to look at his past, present, and future, with an entirely new light. A journey into the real story of his life that he was so blind to see, all the doors he was afraid to open, and all the questions he was afraid to ask. A story of love and an insurmountable joy of hope.

In Bronzville Brooklyn, NY, a single mother with three children faces the relentless challenges of being an immigrant who cannot read. Despite her persistent efforts to secure a stable life through marriage, each attempt ends in failure, culminating in a devastating assault. Struggling to heal and recover, she must confront her hardships with unwavering resolve. "Unwritten Resilience" is a powerful tale of perseverance, illustrating a mother's unbreakable spirit as she fights to overcome adversity and build a brighter future for her family.

Into the maelstrom of unprecedented contemporary debates about immigrants in the United States, this perfectly timed book gives us a portrait of what the new immigrant experience in America is really like. Written as a "guide" for the newly arrived, and providing "practical information and advice", Roya Hakakian, an immigrant herself, reveals what those who settle here love about the country, what they miss about their homes, the cruelty of some Americans, and the unceasing generosity of others.

Tragedy and Triumph is based on the extraordinary life of an Afghan teenager whose loving childhood is shuttered by war. Ahmad Ansari is badly injured in a rocket attack on his house during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1970s. The memoir details challenges that young Ahmad faces since then, how he graduates valedictorian in Kabul to eventually earn a doctorate degree in France and join his refugee family in the United States.

Far too often, immigrants are demonized and scapegoated, when they should be celebrated as heroes and revolutionaries. This audiobook strings together both triumphant and painful tales of immigrants who blazed trails and broke barriers in the fight for fundamental human rights. These are ordinary people who have used their own stories on the fight for citizenship to illustrate their triumphs and trials as immigrants in a new land.

Between 2 Worlds takes you through the life of an immigrant living a life of despair entrenched with a feeling of alienation. It's a heart-touching story that provides the readers with a glimpse of an immigrant surviving in western countries. It's Bahadir's tale of survival, living through the dungeons of Islamophobia and hate. This book provides an in-depth view of the life of an immigrant juggling the dilemma of identity.

On December 7th, 1955, Kitty McInerney lay dying in a New York hospital bed. The 47-year-old Irish immigrant, suffering from severe toxemia, was preparing for an emergency c-section to give birth to her 17th child. As a Catholic priest performed her last rites, Kitty succumbed to a rare moment of quiet reflection.

This true story tells of the author's childhood in an idyllic mountain village in Western Honduras. Despite the civil war in El Salvador, young José felt safe in his hometown of Tambla. Even if the fighting spilled into his homeland, surely the US-backed Honduran army would protect them. But when José's papa vanished at the hands of a notorious rogue military unit, his world was shattered. For decades, José lived with gnawing questions about his papa's fate. His quest continued even as he journeyed north in search of a better life in the United States, cheating death along the way.

A Mexican immigrant and rising star within the Christian community abandons his faith and comes out as a gay atheist in this exceptionally moving and soul-searching memoir. Fernando Alcántar recounts his incredible journey from poor Catholic boy on the dusty streets of Mexico to globetrotting missionary and high-profile Christian leader in the United States - where he eventually left his celebrated life behind to advocate for the liberating power of reason and equality.

As his parents watched their restaurant business collapse in the wake of the Great Recession, Michael Sayman was googling “how to code". Within a year, he had launched an iPhone app that was raking in thousands of dollars a month, enough to keep his family afloat - and in America. Entirely self-taught, Sayman headed from high school straight into the professional world, and by the time he was 17, he was Facebook’s youngest employe ever, building new features that wowed its founder Mark Zuckerberg and are now being used by more than half a billion people every day.

Aquilino Gonell era un jóven cuando llegó a los Estados Unidos de la República Dominicana. Aunque no hablaba inglés, se dedicó a su nueva tierra adoptada, luchando para conseguir el dichoso sueño americano. Su resolución de lograr una vida de éxito le llevó a alistarse en el ejército, como manera de pagar sus estudios universitarios. Tras combatir en Irak, volvió a los EEUU con TEPT, pero siguió con confianza en las promesas del gobierno, y se concentró en su familia y en el proceso de sanarse.

Old New Worlds intertwines the immigrant stories of the author and her great-great grandmother. Sarah Barker and her new husband sail from England in 1815 to minister to the indigenous Khoihoi in South Africa’s Eastern Cape. In the midst of conflict, illness, and natural disasters, Sarah bears 16 children. Two hundred years later, Judith leaves post-apartheid South Africa with her new American husband to immigrate to the United States. She is drawn to Sarah’s immigrant story in the context of her own experience, and she sets out to try and trace her.

In Sicily, on March 12, 1909, four gunshots thundered in the night. Two men fled, and investigators soon discovered who they had killed: Giuseppe Petrosino, the legendary American detective whose exploits in New York were celebrated even in Italy. Veteran New York City journalist and historian Paul Moses explores the lives of the nationally celebrated detectives who followed in the slain Petrosino's footsteps as leaders of the New York City investigative squad: Anthony Vachris, Charles Corrao, and Michael Fiaschetti.

Jenn Budd, the only former US Border Patrol agent to continually blow the whistle on this federal agency's rampant corruption, challenges us—as individuals and as a nation—to face the consequences of our actions. Her journey offers a vital perspective on the unfolding moral crisis of our time. She also gives harrowing testimony about rape culture, white privilege, women in law enforcement, LGBTQ issues, mental illness, survival, and forgiveness.

Leaving a life marked by crippling setbacks and his father's doubt, in 1967 a 20-something doctor from India arrived in America with only five dollars and the desire to claim his American dream. Faced with an entirely new culture, racism, and the lasting effects of disabling childhood injuries, through hard work and perseverance he overcame all odds. Now having performed over 15,000 open-heart surgeries, more than nearly every surgeon in history, Dr. Singh reflects on his most memorable patients and his incredible personal life.

Chris Von der Ahe knew next to nothing about baseball when he risked his life’s savings to found the St. Louis Browns, the franchise that would become the St. Louis Cardinals. Yet the German-born beer garden proprietor would become one of the most important - and funniest - figures in the game’s history.