Essays from prominent authors sharing their immigration stories. Their stories are harrowing and compelling. Each essay unfolds a story of woe that requires our empathy, something we seem to be lacking lately.

Viet Thanh Nguyen has done a masterful job in pulling these stories together. His own story mirrors that of his short story collection on immigration. We see the many faces of struggle, desperation, and hard choices. Immigration is never easy. Bolano said to immigrate was to shrink to your real size. You lose family, friends, resources and even your economic place in society. It is starting over for everyone. On top of that, they face the hate that comes from members of the country that don't want them there. It creates even further peril for those who need to move in order to survive. Very compelling book.

The Displaced by Viet Thanh Nguyen is a powerful anthology showing the incredible depth and breadth of the refugee experience - particularly in the aftermath of the Trump Administration, and their various policies as they impact actual lives. This is difficult to read, but necessary.. I wish I could give a copy of this to every single Trump voter. Perhaps it would help restore some compassion and empathy to their hearts.

If you watch the news for longer than five minutes, you will likely hear someone yell about refugees and what we should (or shouldn't) be doing about the thousands of people who are displaced from their homes. It's easy to lump everyone who flees dangerous circumstances together, but their stories are as different as the refugees themselves. In The Displaced, Viet Thanh Nguyen has collected the experiences of twenty people.

In "Last, First, Middle," Joseph Azam struggles with his choice to leave behind the name his grandfather gave him. Fatima Bhutto recounts her experience with a simulation of crossing the Mexican border in "Flesh and Sand," and Reyna Grande reveals that the trauma of a separated family never goes away in "The Parent Who Stays." Marina Lewycka, who has spent most of her life in England, finds that she is no longer at home in a country where people are harassed in the streets just for looking foreign in "Refugees and Exiles."

The stories in this collection are excellent and there are such different experiences and writing styles between the covers of this book. I do believe that reading about the experiences of people from all countries and situations is crucial, but I wonder if the people who feel empathy for refugees and want to do something to help are already the ones who would read this collection. If words do have the power to change minds and hearts and convince us to see others as people, The Displaced is an excellent place to start.

Note: This advanced copy only included ten of the twenty pieces. All royalties from the sale of this book will go to the International Rescue Committee.


The Displaced:
Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives
Edited by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Abrams Press April 2018
192 pages
Read via Netgalley

THE DISPLACED, edited by award-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen, is a series of essays by refugee writers on refugee lives and that feeling of being an outsider. The writers in the sample that I saw are certainly accomplished in their fields with unique perspectives on their experience. In, "Last, First, Middle," Joseph Azam, Senior VP at News Corp, describes his family’s move from Afghanistan and its impact on his identity and the struggle to fit in. Reyna Grande, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, describes the childhood trauma of being left behind in Mexico in "The Parent Who Stays." Joseph Kertes, from Hungary, describes his family's chance of a new life in Canada in "Second Country," noting the importance of "hope, hope, hope." Also, from Europe, there is the author of The Lazarus Project (a National Book Award finalist), Aleksander Hemon, writing about Bosnia in the 1990s ("God’s Fate") and noting that roughly one-quarter of the country's pre-war population is now displaced, having resettled in places like Utica, New York. He says, "The recent upsurge in bigotry directed at migrants and refugees is predictably contingent upon their dehumanization and deindividualization." That makes these essays and stories even more important and we are considering THE DISPLACED as a reading for our Global Voices class next year. The global displacement and refugee crisis today is the largest ever – over 22.5 million people – in contrast the United States is annually allowing only 45,000 to settle here, as recently profiled in The Economist. All royalties from THE DISPLACED are being donated to the International Refugee Committee.

Link in live post:
https://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21740774-muslim-refugees-are-set-decline-85-america-track-admit-fewest-refugees

The Displaced by Viet Thanh Nguyen is a book of essays by refugee writers. These essays give a voice to the individuals in the burgeoning refugee crisis, specifically in reaction to Trump's anti-refugee policies. The Displaced is a book of harrowing escapes but also of the people who are called refugees, their identities, their journeys, and their inner lives.

"We should remember that justice is not the same as law. ...[If] borders are legal, are they also just?" -Viet Thanh Nguyen

By definition refugees are people fleeing their homes because of war, famine, or political threats. As a person who grew up in the most diverse city in the U.S., my family always had people in our lives who were refugees. My godmother fled Cuba as a child because her father was a target of the Castro government.  Houston is home to largest Vietnamese community in the U.S. outside of California, and I went to school with a large number of the children of refugee parents.  We have a friend who fled Guatemala during the Civil War there, and another friend from El Salvador.  I can't imagine uprooting your family and fleeing your country. I know how rooted we are, and when I think about what it would take for me to find it necessary to seek refuge, it makes me want to take in every single refugee. How could they be refused?  Viet Thanh Nguyen, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author who is also a refugee, wanted to amplify the voices of refugees so that they could be heard. In the introduction, he tells his own story of fleeing Vietnam as a child and being in a refugee camp in Pennsylvania, then later moving to California where his parents opened a grocery store (razed by San Jose to build a parking lot).

The Displaced lets refugees tell their own stories. There are stories from all over the world, addressing not just the origin and destination of their journey, but including everything from choosing a name ("Last, First, Middle" by Joseph Azam) to the expectation that refugees constantly express gratitude to their host country ("The Ungrateful Refugee" by Dina Nayeri).  It is a well-edited collection of essays.  I could see this being a good text for a high school or college class, or a gift for someone who enjoys reading personal stories.  And while you may want to give this book to your racist uncle (go ahead and do that! Your racist uncle needs to broaden his horizons, though it is sadly unlikely he will open the book), it's really for everyone. The essays I mentioned above, by Azam and Nayeri, really stuck in my brain for a while and made me reflect on the inner lives of refugees in a foreign country (our country!) in a way that I hadn't before.  So don't think that this book won't reach the eyes that need to see it. We all need our eyes on this book, if only for that glimpse into another person's life that gives us a new perspective on our own.  I will never forget my uncle giving me a book for my high school graduation with stories of Rescuers during the Holocaust, it was eye-opening in such a good way. 

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys hearing the stories of other people (are you a fan of Humans of New York?), and for anyone who would benefit from contemplating the experience of humans forced to leave their homes and make a new home in a foreign country. In other words, everyone should read this book.

I am grateful to Netgalley and Abrams Press for providing an abridged digital copy (containing 10 of the 17 essays) of this book free of charge. My opinions are my own.

This a book that is unapologetic in its honesty and has the power to shame all of those (including myself) who live in complacency in a country not under constant threat of war or poverty. It features the writings of 20 people, all of whom are refugees in some way and details the manner in which they have been made to feel in their adopted country, predominantly the US. Some of them are angry, some are bemused and others just document the harsh reality of life as a displaced person - the pressure to conform, to fit in that we all feel, but with an added sense that they should feel grateful for the opportunity. This is not a comfortable read, but it is an important one and my main concern is that the people who will read it, are not necessarily those who need to. Most people who pick up a book of this nature will, by definition, have an interest in the lives of those different from themselves and in my opinion, it is those without that interest who should read this book!
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The Displaced is a collection of essays from noted writers, each of whom has a background as a refugee. Each of these stories illuminates a different aspect of the refugee experience.

The authors have a range of origins: a Hungarian who fled from the USSR, a person left stateless at the end of the second world war, and people who have fled wars and repressive regimes in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and South America.

This is a book that really makes you think. 'How much do refugees need to try to fit into their new country? What sort of welcome do they experience? Are they obliged to be grateful, or do we owe them help? And how does the experience of past waves of refugees compare with the people currently seeking asylum?

There are 65 million displaced people in the world, according to the UNHCR. The plight of the displaced is one of the biggest human problems that we face. This book is a valuable contribution to our thinking on the problems that they encounter, and how we might help.

10 well-crafted, moving stories about the refugee and immigrant experience.

Apologies I could not read this text on my Kindle so I am unable to review it.

Unfortunately, I cannot access books that are not available on kindle. Therefore, I was unable to read to review.