These 10 books outline the real American tragedy, family separation. This book list brings to life what it really means to be an immigrant and a refugee. From new books published in 2023 to fiction, nonfiction, and memoirs you are bound to learn something new within these pages.
My own family is a mix of different cultures and people from different countries so this book list is close to my heart. I’ll give you an honest review of the ones I have read and I’ve also included some books that are on my own TBR list.
These books will make you cry your heart out, test your empathy, and inspire you.
Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning that at no additional cost to you, I will receive a commission if you click through and make a purchase.
Remember these stories whether fiction or not highlight real-life struggles that people are suffering through today and these stories are important. I hope you enjoy this list.
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
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About The Book: Lydia Quixano Pérez lives in the Mexican city of Acapulco. She runs a bookstore. She has a son, Luca, the love of her life, and a wonderful husband who is a journalist. And while there are cracks beginning to show in Acapulco because of the drug cartels, her life is, by and large, fairly comfortable.
Suddenly forced to flee, Lydia and eight-year-old Luca soon find themselves miles and worlds away from their comfortable middle-class existence. Instantly transformed into migrants. As they join the countless people trying to reach el norte, Lydia soon sees that everyone is running from something. But what exactly are they running to?
My Review, 5 Stars
I wanted to start my list out with this book in particular because it is so popular. I’m surprised and impressed with myself for getting through this book because it is so truly horrifyingly dear to my heart. It is an almost fatal wound that has attached itself to my heart and when I read things like this it scratches the very transparent & tender surface of that scab and it bleeds red.
I won’t say much about this book but there is nothing fiction about this book except the names of the characters and everyone in the US should read this book.
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
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About The Book: The House on Mango Street is the remarkable story of Esperanza Cordero, a young Latina girl growing up in Chicago, inventing for herself who and what she will become. Few other books in our time have touched so many readers.
My Review, 5 Stars
Although short, this book is important, relatable, and reads like poetry.
Esperanza is a young Mexican teen who is coping with life and its unpredictable challenges living in a poor neighborhood filled with minorities and she dreams of more. Suffering sexual assault, racism, and all the difficult challenges of growing up poor, Mexican, and displaced she weaves a fascinating tale of neighbors along her street within her own perspective.
Refugee by Alan Gratz
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About The Book: Three different kids. One mission in common: ESCAPE. Josef is a Jewish boy in 1930s Nazi Germany. Isabel is a Cuban girl in 1994. Mahmoud is a Syrian boy in 2015.
My Review, 4 Stars
I have seriously mixed emotions about this book.
At first, I didn’t like it because it was reading too young adult for me and then there seemed to be a lot of survival situations that were nothing short of miraculous, which felt very unrealistic but at about 60% of the way through I started to feel differently about the story. I started to fall deeply in love with the story and the characters and I especially liked how the stories started to Intertwine.
this book is chilling, devastating, heartbreaking, and utterly exhausting.
It is SO sad. It’s sad over and over again. It’s unbelievably sad. Follow 3 teens as they flee their homes and start a journey to freedom during different times throughout history.
I found that to be very unique that the stories took place at different times and it’s just so unbelievably embarrassing that countries still don’t want to help refugees. You can see from the story there is a period in time when people are fleeing away from Germany and in another time period there are refugees fleeing to Germany. Things have a way of coming around full circle.
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
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About The Book: A memoir about growing up Korean American, losing her mother, and forging her own identity.
My Review, 3 Stars
A sad memoir about family, loss, and food.
Packed with Korean culture the author is very lovable.
Tell Me How It Ends An Essay In Forty Questions by Valeria Luiselli
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About The Book: Structured around the forty questions Luiselli translates and asks undocumented Latin-American children facing deportation in the US.
My Review, 5 Stars
Written in essay question form and it is filled with powerful stories from undocumented Latin-American children facing deportation. Revealing the devasting truths of the inner workings of today’s inhumane process which is the immigration system in the United States.
Complex and highly personal stories of the unbelievable struggles of children fleeing the violence and severe poverty in their own countries and entering into an unforgiving system that does not want them.
Sad, honest, heartbreaking… this is a book that needed to be written and these things need to be said again and again.
Afterlife by Julia Alvarez
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About The Book: Antonia Vega, the immigrant writer at the center of Afterlife, has had the rug pulled out from under her. She has just retired when her beloved husband, Sam, suddenly dies. And then more jolts: her bighearted but unstable sister disappears, and Antonia returns home one evening to find a pregnant, undocumented teenager on her doorstep.
Antonia has always sought direction in the literature she loves—but now she finds that the world demands more of her than just words.
This book asks: What do we owe those in crisis in our families, including—maybe especially—members of our human family? How do we live in a broken world without losing faith in one another or ourselves? And how do we stay true to those glorious souls we have lost?
My Review, 4 Stars
The writing style is very unique and I’m not sure if I liked it or not it was just different than most books I’ve read. It’s a story about dealing with grief more than anything else but this story of grief is interwoven with family dysfunction and the lack of human rights involved with the immigration system in the US today.
It is a quick read, approximately 200 pages. I couldn’t really relate to Antonia. I loved the dynamic of the sisterhood between Antonia and her sister and the unspoken rules. This is a meaningful story that brings an interesting perspective to life and life after death.
Americanah by Chimamamda Ngozi Adichie
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About The Book: Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be black for the first time.
Quiet, thoughtful Obinze had hoped to join her, but with post-9/11 America closed to him, he instead plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London. Fifteen years later, they reunite in a newly democratic Nigeria, and reignite their passion—for each other and for their homeland.
My Review, 4 Stars
I love any book by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. She is one of my favorite authors.
This book made me question myself. I absolutely agree and see all the references to white privilege, the struggles that minorities face, and the opportunities they aren’t offered but are qualified for. It’s everything I deem wrong about the world. I found the book thought-provoking and I liked the main characters and their journey as they leave their home country for more opportunities in a foreign land.
Return to Sender by Julia Alvarez
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About The Book: After Tyler’s father is injured in a tractor accident, his family hires migrant Mexican workers to help save their Vermont farm from foreclosure. Tyler isn’t sure what to make of these workers. Are they undocumented?
And what about the three daughters, particularly Mari, the oldest, who is proud of her Mexican heritage but also increasingly connected to her American life. Her family lives in constant fear of being discovered by the authorities and sent back to the poverty they left behind in Mexico.
My Review, 3 Stars
Yes, another book by Julia Alvarez!
I loved this book and the content and the humanity of the story but it read very young adult. Which is totally fine however it was just immature for me as a thirty-year-old.
Overall I think a younger audience could really cherish this book and the content is something that many struggle with today. Immigrants aren’t criminals and that mentality is so harmful and destructive and it absolutely is absurd. If you struggle with those feelings then this could be a great book for you to get a different perspective.
These next books I have not read myself YET! But I will soon and they come highly recommended!
Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan
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About The Book: Esperanza thought she’d always live with her family on their ranch in Mexico–she’d always have fancy dresses, a beautiful home, and servants. But a sudden tragedy forces Esperanza and Mama to flee to California during the Great Depression, and to settle in a camp for Mexican farm workers.
Esperanza isn’t ready for the hard labor, financial struggles, or lack of acceptance she now faces. When their new life is threatened, Esperanza must find a way to rise above her difficult circumstances
Solito by Javier Zamora
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About The Book: A young poet tells the story of his harrowing migration from El Salvador to the United States at the age of nine in this memoir.
A three-thousand-mile journey from his small town in El Salvador, through Guatemala and Mexico, and across the U.S. border. He will leave behind his beloved aunt and grandparents to reunite with a mother who left four years ago and a father he barely remembers. Traveling alone except for a group of strangers and a coyote hired to lead them to safety.
The uncertainty of leaving one’s homeland undocumented because of war, repression, the threat of death, poverty, or a desire to “better” one’s life. This is a story that impacts thousands of lives and the lives of American citizens. The culture shock after settling in a new land. The negative encounters with those U.S. citizens who are anti-immigrant even though their ancestors were immigrants. Adapting and being separated from loved ones and your home country and all of these struggles in the name of survival.
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