Well, this was an exceptional memoir!

It's a gripping narrative that captures the challenges and triumphs of an undocumented family, seen through the eyes of a resilient young girl. A poignant and deeply personal look at the immigrant experience in America. A unique and eye-opening insight into the lives of undocumented immigrants in the United States and their hardships, from working in sweatshops to living in fear of deportation, underscores the importance of understanding and empathy.

You can't help but relate to Qian Julie Wang as she grapples with issues of identity, belonging, and the pursuit of the American dream and empathize with her struggles and victories. She is an unforgettable and powerful protagonist. Her courage, determination, and unwavering love for her family are deeply touching!

Wang is also a great storyteller! The writing is both vivid and engaging!

I can't recommend "Beautiful Country" enough with its universal themes of resilience, hope, and the pursuit of a better life, demonstrating the human capacity to overcome adversity and find light even in the darkest of circumstances. A source of inspiration and a testament to the enduring human spirit and the pursuit of a brighter future.

In this memoir, Qian shares her story about being an undocumented Chinese immigrant and her family's journey from China to America. Overall, I thought the book helped me to see things from a different perspective - how fear, hunger, and secrecy changed how they viewed things that were happening around them. (Ex - their fear of calling 911 for help or even seeking medical care because it may result in them being deported). While a lot of Qian's shared story is heartbreaking, I wish she would have shared a bit more. Why weren't they able to become legal citizens? I ask this question not as a judgment, but as someone who would ask the follow-up question - how can we help immigrant families in their desire to become legal citizens?

This book does allow me to see illegal immigration from a somewhat different perspective, and for that, I am thankful to Qian for sharing her story.

I received a free copy of this book for my honest review.

This was a beautiful debut by author Qian Julie Wang. Her story is a humbling one of a childhood as an undocumented immigrant in New York City. Wang's writing so vividly captures the experience of moving to America through the eyes of a child. The memoir focuses mainly on Wang's childhood (up through sixth grade, if I remember correctly), which is unusual for memoirs in my experience, but in my opinion it does not take away from the narrative at all. I both read and listened to this memoir at the same time, and the author does a really good job bringing this story to life.

A unique memoir told through the eyes of a child about what it's like to be an undocumented immigrant. Emotional and heartfelt - this memoir will move you.

Immigration, undocumented, struggles from a childhood prospective. Coming from China to New York as a child, American lawyer Qian Julie Wang shares her story. The book will stay with me , it’s a beautiful memoir.

Thank you #NetGalley, #Doubleday, #PenguinRandomHouse, #QianJulieWang and #BeautifulCountry for the book for my honest review.

An eye opening, well told account of the author’s harrowing childhood as an undocumented child in New York City.

The Chinese word for America is "Mei Guo", which means "beautiful country" (on a side note, the word for America in Korean is based off Chinese, "mi-gook" and also means beautiful country). Author Qian Julie Wang had a shock coming to New York City as a child to find a place that did not welcome her with open arms as an undocumented immigrant.
As a librarian, I absolutely love that the place where Wang found refuge was her local library.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel, as Wang became successful as a lawyer, but the path there was certainly not a bed of roses. Some details about her parent's actions seem to be missing, but that could very well be that her parents did not share certain details about their struggles with their child. I still loved it and would recommend it to fans of memoirs.

This was heartbreaking and beautiful. So painful and yet I couldn’t stop reading it. I struggled a bit with the length of the book, but honestly it’s such a small qualm.

Seeing New York City in the 1990’s through the eyes of a seven-year-old is a unique perspective in and of itself, but when that child has also just immigrated from another country it makes it even more exclusive, and quite gut-wrenching.

I cannot even begin to imagine how hard it must be for immigrants to adapt, not only to a new environment, but obstacles imposed by those that hold prejudice. I have never, and will never, understand prejudice, and how people can hate other people for things that are out of their control, yet it happens every day, and I will never not be angry about the unfairness of it all.

This memoir actually reads like a novel, which I appreciated and admired. I can’t help but wonder if the author wrote it this way to help her cope with what she went through, and to help her see the situation through a different lens. I ended up listening to the audiobook as well as reading the story, and hearing the author’s voice was truly powerful and added such depth and emotion to her story.

Through the lens of Qian Julie Wang, Beautiful Country is the story of her family immigrating to the US from China, eventually becoming undocumented when their temporary visas ran out. In China both of her parents held jobs of high esteem, but in New York they restored to menial grunt work in deplorable places just to survive, and lived in utter poverty. It broke my heart that all of this happened so recently, and that there are so many that have to live like this now.

Though the main focus is on Qian’s childhood, I was so glad to read how things worked out into her adulthood, and where her family ended up. Qian is a fighter and reading her heartbreaking upbringing made me so grateful for the childhood that I had. I grew up very poor, but I also never had to worry about where my next meal would come from, and had both my parents there by my side. I took for granted just how lucky I was.

This was such a beautifully written, impactful novel and though it was hard to read at times it opened my eyes to a fresh perspective and is a story everyone should hear.

I'd like to thank NetGalley and Doubleday (publisher) for granting me early access to an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I gave this book 4 stars.

This is a memoir that takes the reader through Qian and her family's experiences in China and emigrating to the US. It tells of struggles, hardship within and without the family, as well as in each of their members.

As an immigrant myself, I related quite closely to rejection for being a foreginer, emotional issues because you're mourning your old life and your own country, the people you left behind. However, Qian's family had problems I've never had to go through, such as arriving to a place whose language you don't speak, being treated inhumanly for the colour of your skin or inner family struggles that I never suffered when travelling because I have no family. I reckon everything has its positive side.

It also shows that people don't really change, but adapt or not to new situations in life which, at some point, shows other aspects of their personality that had not been seen before. We all have the good, the bad and the ugly inside; it's up to each individual and the tools they have to cope, what side comes to the surface.

Back to the book, the writing style made it an easy and fast read, not being simplistic at all, but blunt and honest.

There were only two objections for me. One is I cannot understand how she could continue loving her father. I totally get that family is sacred in certain cultures and you cannot just unlove them, but there are limits to things. Anyway, that's just a personal opinion and she has every right to love him has much as she wants.

The second thing was that were were given some details that were unnecessary for the reader, but I also get why Qian deemed them important. It is her life anyway that's being told.

All in all, I do recommend this memoir, even if you're not used to reading them.

This was one of the best immigrant stories I’ve read. Qian writes in a style so vivid and moving. This is one I’ll be thinking about for a long time.

Lately I feel like immigration memoirs have been providing me with such a powerful learning tool. Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang is most certainly one such case.

Qian came to the United States as a young child when her father had to leave the country due to his lack of ability to express himself freely. He had left first and then Qian and her mother followed later. When Qian arrived she was taught to say she was born in the US and could not let anyone find out her true status or she could be deported. Her parents were both well-educated professors in China but in the US they were forced to work in menial jobs and sweat shops to survive. Qian would also work in the sweat shops when she was not in school. Qian worked very hard and taught herself English despite being put in classes for very low functioning students for a period of time in school. As she went through the educational system she had to learn to play the game where she couldn't turn in papers that were too good for fear of being accused of cheating. She was able to survive and in the end thrive becoming a Yale educated lawyer.

As I teacher I feel this book was so very enlightening and provided me with so many takeaways. I also teacher a class for future teachers and this is a book I have referenced many times throughout reading to the course. I defintely recommend them picking it up to read.

I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read this book. I really enjoyed reading it the plot was interesting and the characters made me want to know more about them. I highly recommend.

This is an essential and truly American story, one that shows us the importance of treating all we meet with kindness, especially those coming to the country to start new lives.

This is a DNF at 40%. I appreciate the struggles of Wang as an undocumented immigrant, but the writing feels childlike with a lot of metaphors. The timeline is stuck on toys and hunger and it hasn’t moved much out of her primitive years. There is not much mention of the parents struggles, just of the toys the author couldn’t have. I think it is just not the memoir/style of writing for me. I appreciate the opportunity to review this title.

LOVED! I loved this book. What an emotional, devastating roller coaster. I think this is such an important read when we talk about immigration in the US. It makes me so sad how this family had to go to Canada to receive any real assistance, whereas America was fine to watch this family and young child suffer or face deportation. The authors prose was poetic and lovely to listen to.

Beautiful Country is a raw and real memoir. From beginning to end, I was fascinated by the authors family journey and story. I think it is important for more stories like Qian’s to be published. Her story was written beautifully and I hope to read more from her in the future.

This is not only a story of immigration and growing up undocumented. It is a moving and often heartbreaking tale of dreams, fear, and survival. The way in which Qian Julie Wang describes her personal journey makes it impossible not to feel the emotion and pain depicted on the pages. Highly recommend this powerful memoir.

Qian Julie Wang’s debut memoir Beautiful Country, is about a child who has no hand and no control in an immigration decision, a child who perhaps has no knowledge of that decision, a child whose mother hides an illness for fear of what a doctor's visit will mean for her undocumented family, a child who has no home other than the known neighborhoods of New York. What is to become of this undocumented child as she becomes an adult? Where is home?

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2022/12/beautiful-country.html

Reviewed for NetGalley.

I’ll never tire of reading another person’s life story. I love memoirs, and this one was no exception. I learned so much from Qian’s story: a life I can only imagine. Thanks to netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.