Beautiful Country
A Memoir of An Undocumented Childhood
$33.16
- Paperback
288 pages
- Release Date
2 August 2022
Summary
The New York Times bestselling memoir of a girl who learns to live - and then escape - an invisible life.
In China, she was the daughter of professors. In Brooklyn, her family is ‘illegal.’
Qian is seven when she moves to America, the ‘Beautiful Country’, where she and her parents find that the roads of New York City are not paved with gold, but crushing fear and scarcity. Unable to speak English at first, Qian and her parents must work wherever they can to survive, all while …
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780241514702 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 0241514703 |
| Author: | Qian Julie Wang |
| Publisher: | Penguin Books Ltd |
| Imprint: | Viking |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 288 |
| Release Date: | 2 August 2022 |
| Weight: | 202g |
| Dimensions: | 198mm x 129mm x 17mm |
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What They're Saying
Critics Review
A story that needs to be heard. Moving, beautiful, heartbreaking and even funny … I never wanted it to end
A story that needs to be heard. Moving, beautiful, heartbreaking and even funny … I never wanted it to end – Philippa Perry
Now a successful lawyer, Qian is working through her trauma in this book, but it’s joyous too, with moments of brightness breaking through even the most trying times * Sunday Times, Books of the Year *
Elegantly affecting … Qian Julie Wang tells a remarkable story of displacement, heartache and resilience * Guardian, Best Biographies and Memoirs of 2021 *
Deeply compelling … I was moved by the love and resilience of this family thrust into darkness. The book casts an urgent light on a reality that extends way beyond America’s borders – Hisham Matar, author of The Return
A powerful, gripping insight into the world of an undocumented migrant in New York … beautifully written, with vivid scenes that linger in the mind long after finishing it – Helena Merriman
Sharply observed … Wang’s story leaves the reader wishing that wanting a better future, and working hard for it, wasn’t illegal in a country that has been built on the back of immigrants * FT *
Astonishing … In restrained but beautiful prose, Wang honours her family’s sacrifices, but alerts us to the urgent realisation that they should not be necessary – Nesrine Malik
Intricate and penetrating … a beautiful and hopeful read that also underlines what can truly happen to people who are simply seeking refuge * Stylist, an Unmissable Memoir for Summer 2021 *
The must-read book of 2021 * Marie Claire *
This beautifully expressed memoir of the immigrant experience charts her parents’ struggles to survive as “illegals” in New York while their daughter battles hunger and loneliness at school, and is all the more moving for being related from a child’s point of view * The Bookseller, Editor’s Choice *
About The Author
Qian Julie Wang
Qian Julie Wang is a graduate of Yale Law School and Swarthmore College and is managing partner of a law firm dedicated to advocating for education, disability, and civil rights. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times and The Washington Post, among other major U.S. publications. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and their two rescue dogs. Beautiful Country is her first book.
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