My review for Shelf Awareness Pro is here: https://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=3826#m49826

The review was also cross-posted to Smithsonian BookDragon: http://smithsonianapa.org/bookdragon/somewhere-in-the-unknown-world-a-collective-refugee-memoir-by-kao-kalia-yang-in-shelf-awareness/

5 important stars. This book shines.
I have followed Kao Kalia Yang's writing since her first book, The Latehomecomer, over a decade ago. This is the book she wrote to tell her illiterate grandmother's story. Yang hopes Somewhere in the Unknown World “will teach you the incredible strength of the human heart.” This book tells stories of refugees from around the world, Russia, Somalia, Syria, Bosnia, Burma, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan. Places of war and bullets, places of sweet scents and foul odors, places of cooking and hiding and family love. Somewhere in the Unknown World is an important book for You to read.
Yang’s writing is strong, descriptive, visual. The children “played a game between the hanging sheets. Beneath the hot sun, the damp sheets were cool. The children laughed as they chased each other up and down the lines of clothes, caught up in the magic of their world sandwiched between the expanse of sky and cement.” Stories embrace the personal and the universal aspects of our humanity. “In America, Irene learned how to turn her memories and feelings into songs, songs in Russian, that say life is the beautiful moment. She allowed the weight of the memories, the leaving and the letting go, to enter into her voice so it became as full of the past as it was of the present.”
The immigrants’ stories have emotional resonance. Strength and hidden sorrow dance together. I want to meet and talk with these people. (I think of my grandparents and great-grandparents whose stories are forever lost.) Danger and scarcity are real, yet matter-of-fact. “Whenever we ventured outside, Mama gave me lessons on how to walk on the streets, how to look out for snipers, and how to hide at sudden sounds.”
An Iraqi refugee faced devastating prejudice after 9/11. Years later she entered college and gave a talk on her refugee experience saying, “Judge me, judge us, only after you have heard our stories.” Stories bind us together. They nourish empathy. Michael Tesfay’s story ends with him becoming an American citizen. “Of all the hands that were raised, mine, an old man’s hand, crooked and bent, skin with lines of white fanning out in all directions like a web, was the highest. It was God that I was speaking to, thanking him for loving me, my family, and my people and showing us that peace is possible if we hold fast to not only the bad stories but the good ones. Life is too short for just the bad to happen – even in a hard life.”
My great-grandparents were refugees from East Prussia (Germany) after WWII, when the Russian army invaded their town. How I wish I knew their story. Thanks, Kao Kalia Yang, for telling these stories so eloquently, in a way that will not (and should not!) be forgotten.
I am grateful to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Co. for this advance reader's copy of Somewhere in the Unknown Word by Kao Kalia Yang.

To say that I enjoyed reading this book would be wrong. Don't get me wrong, this was a good read but the stories told here are devastating accounts of what it is like to lose your home and become a refugee. Essential reading for sure, but these are not feel-good stories. These are stories that should help you understand what it means to be stateless, to have your fate left up to governmental agencies and bureaucracy. Some of these stories are heartbreaking, some are inspirational, all are necessary accounts.

This is not a book written by Kao Kalia Yang, although she is listed as the author. Each story is told by the person who lived it, as they should be. I can't state it enough, this is essential reading for these times in America and the world.

In this multifaceted memoir, we get to read many and varied stories of how people from all around the world ended up in Minnesota. Each refugee tells their unique story, and while they are often linked in tragedy and loss, they are also connected in the tremendous patience and strength that they demonstrate. This format of a collective memoir is unusual, but it works really well.

This book is unlike anything I've seen in the memoir category: a "collective memoir" with narratives from people from all over the world (Bosnia, Liberia, Syria, the Karenni in Burma, Iraq, Kandahar, and more) who settled in Minnesota. Male and female perspectives are represented, and while every story is unique, they all are testimonies of courage and resilience. In “Certificate of Humanity,” Afghanzada Achekzai said,
“I started thinking about being independent again, being the maker of my destiny, the maker of my life. I began thinking about America.”

We travel from all over the globe, through refugee camps, all to the United States, and moreover, all to Minnesota. I was fascinated to learn that Minnesota is home to more refugees per capita than any other state.

The prose is simply beautiful—lyrical yet without pretense.