Immigrant Memoirs

In The Snakehead, Patrick Radden Keefe reveals the inner workings of Cheng Chui Ping aka Sister Ping’s complex empire and recounts the decade-long FBI investigation that eventually brought her down. He follows an often incompetent and sometimes corrupt INS as it pursues desperate immigrants risking everything to come to America, and along the way he paints a stunning portrait of a generation of undocumented immigrants and the intricate underground economy that sustains and exploits them.

In this book, the author shares personal stories, captivating the listener with descriptions of her experiences and challenges as an African immigrant, an international student, and later, as a mother of three children. The quotes she chooses to use as openers for each letter reflect her background as an African anthropologist and spiritual leader. She sums up each missive with lessons she has learned during her decades of living in the United States. This book offers insight into the life a minoritized American immigrant from an internal perspective.

Andreas Souvaliotis was raised at a time when being on the autism spectrum wasn't easily diagnosed or even discussed. Minds like his were simply considered odd. He also knew from an early age he was gay, and it terrified him as he was growing up with openly homophobic parents in one of Europe's least tolerant societies. Andreas' differences made him an outsider, right through to his mid-40s. And then suddenly, everything changed. Misfit is the extraordinary memoir of a man who realized there was strength in his strangeness, that it could be used as a force for good.

Charlotte Gill’s father is Indian. Her mother is English. They meet in 1960’s London when the world is not quite ready for interracial love. Their union, a revolutionary act, results in a total meltdown of familial relations, a lot of immigration paperwork, and three children, all in varying shades of tan. Together they set off on a journey from the United Kingdom to Canada and to the United States in elusive pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness—a dream that eventually tears them apart.

Old New Worlds intertwines the immigrant stories of the author and her great-great grandmother. Sarah Barker and her new husband sail from England in 1815 to minister to the indigenous Khoihoi in South Africa’s Eastern Cape. In the midst of conflict, illness, and natural disasters, Sarah bears 16 children. Two hundred years later, Judith leaves post-apartheid South Africa with her new American husband to immigrate to the United States. She is drawn to Sarah’s immigrant story in the context of her own experience, and she sets out to try and trace her.

Chasing My Dream: An African Immigrant Story in America is a story of courage, resilience, and perseverance in the face of life challenges. In this audiobook, Komi Afetse talks about his early years in Togo, West Africa, his adjustments to America, his life of service as a US Army Officer, and how he went from earning minimum wage to become financially independent in 14 years.

No Smiling Allowed is a comedic take on life in the former Soviet Union, as an immigrant in America. Julia Bendis has compiled many years of funny stories about her old-fashioned and traditional Russian parents, their understanding of how life works in the United States, their hilarious adventures, and her own younger generation's view of what it was like to blend in as a weird-looking kid from Russia.

Sinatra’s Tailor is the remarkable story of Umberto Autore, orphaned as a young boy in Italy during WWII and raised by “nuns and Nazis”. He eventually immigrated to America where he became the tailor of Frank Sinatra and The Rat Pack, Steven Spielberg, and many other Hollywood luminaries.

Far too often, immigrants are demonized and scapegoated, when they should be celebrated as heroes and revolutionaries. This audiobook strings together both triumphant and painful tales of immigrants who blazed trails and broke barriers in the fight for fundamental human rights. These are ordinary people who have used their own stories on the fight for citizenship to illustrate their triumphs and trials as immigrants in a new land.

The descendant of survivors of the Armenian genocide, Arlene Avakian was raised in America, where she could live free. But even with that freedom, she found herself a prisoner of both her family and society, denying her heritage along with her true sexuality. After marriage and motherhood, Arlene found herself exploring the growing women’s lib movement of the 1970s, coming to embrace the strength of her grandmother—known as the Lion Woman—and realizing her full potential and personhood.

"Charles notified the police the instant they left, and the latter indeed set up roadblocks on all roads leading north from Abuja. The kidnappers knew this would happen, and so they chose to drive down hidden paths to avoid the roadblocks." This fascinating book focuses on the lives of Shmuel and Michelle, a couple whose summer vacation in Varna, Bulgaria creates a deep connection that leads to the founding of a close-knit family. Shmuel was born in a neglected neighborhood, to a chronically-drunk father and a mother who worked as a housekeeper. Michelle, on the other hand, is the daughter ...

Between 2 Worlds takes you through the life of an immigrant living a life of despair entrenched with a feeling of alienation. It's a heart-touching story that provides the readers with a glimpse of an immigrant surviving in western countries. It's Bahadir's tale of survival, living through the dungeons of Islamophobia and hate. This book provides an in-depth view of the life of an immigrant juggling the dilemma of identity.

A story of love, war, and life as a Jewish immigrant in the squalid factories and lively dance halls of New York’s Garment District in the 1930s, My Mother’s Wars is the memoir Lillian Faderman's mother was never able to write. The daughter delves into her mother's past to tell the story of a Latvian girl who left her village for America with dreams of a life on the stage and encountered the realities of her new world: the battles she was forced to fight as a woman, an immigrant worker, and a Jew with family left behind in Hitler’s deadly path.

Numerous newspaper and magazine articles have talked about it, and now this riveting book, We All Wore Blue, is the true account of a youth soccer team in Washington state that transformed over several seasons into a team comprised largely of immigrants from around the globe, representing a myriad of different countries, most races, and major religions. The story tells how these immigrant boys and families bonded with the middle-class White kids and their families, coming together and dealing with numerous challenges, great adversity, and racism.

This is a memoir about a man who left the comforts of a modern home in faraway India and did what he had to do to make a living and succeed in a new land. This book reaches out to immigrants and those who wish to immigrate. It reminds them that the journey toward a new, unchartered territory may be difficult, but to the brave, resilient, and hardworking, the promise of a safe and thriving life is not far behind. This book should give you a place to start planning your immigration. Now it's time to ask those questions, and hopefully, you get the answers you deserve.

Khabaar is a food memoir and personal narrative that braids the global journeys of South Asian food through immigration, migration, and indenture. Focusing on chefs, home cooks, and food stall owners, the book questions: What does it mean to belong, and what does belonging in a new place look like in the foods carried over from the old country?

After witnessing the beheading of his uncle, a very young Doc Ping and his family escaped from China on foot in fear for their lives. They left everything behind, including his father's position in the nationalist Chinese government and all of their possessions, and fled the country—first to Bangkok, and then to Taiwan. When Doc was nine, his father secretly arranged for him to travel on a freighter with 15 other civilians to the USA to live with the woman who helped resuscitate him from drowning a few years earlier.

"To My Daughters: An Immigrant Father’s Advice to His Born-in-America Daughters" is a heartfelt guide by Dr. Tursun Alkam, a neuroscientist, father, and immigrant. In this inspiring book, he blends personal experiences with practical advice to help his daughters—and others—navigate life’s challenges.

What is it like to be a refugee? It is a question few in the West give much thought to, and yet to be a refugee - or an immigrant - is to grapple with your place in the world, attempting to reconcile the life you have known with the unfamiliar. With this comes the weight of the expectations (and fears and resentment) of those born in the host country; foremost is the burden of gratitude: to be forever thankful for the space you have been allowed.

After stowing away as a boy to come to America around 1905, an Italian immigrant sculptor later stands firm in his love for an unfaithful woman. Trapped behind enemy lines during World War II, he and his family go on to save over 600 Allied troops. This is the epic multi-generational, true story of Salvatore Cartaino Scarpitta and family. His story was only partially told in a 1953 episode of This Is Your Life. Salvatore’s role in WWII is just one of the many stories found throughout this book.