The displaced : refugee writers on refugee lives

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen, himself a refugee, brings together a host of prominent refugee writers from around the world to explore and illuminate their experiences. Poignant and insightful, this collection of essays reveals moments of uncertainty, resilience in the face of trauma, and a reimagining of identity. The Displaced is a powerful look at what it means to be forced to leave home and find a place of refuge.-- Adapted from book jacket

Contents:

Introduction / The road / Last, first, middle / Common story / Flesh and sand / Perspective and what gets lost / How succulent food defeated Trump's wall before it has been built / Guests of the Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa / The parent who stays / To walk in their shoes / God's fate / Second country / 13 ways of being an immigrant / Refugees and exiles / This is what the journey does / The ungrateful refugee / Am I a refugee? / A refugee again / New lands, new selves / Refugee children : the Yang warriors

Physical Description:

205 pages : black and white illustrations ; 21 cm

Genre:

Essays.

Subject Term:

Refugees.

Author(s):

Nguyen, Viet Thanh, 1971-

Albani, Chris,

Azam, Joseph,

Bezmozgis, David, 1973-

Bhutto, Fatima, 1982-

Hemon, Aleksandar, 1964-

Kertes, Joseph, 1951-

Publisher:

Abrams Press,

Publication Date:

2019

2018

ISBN:

9781419735110

Publication Information:

New York : Abrams Press, [2019]

Call Number:

305.9 DISPLACED

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607003456764	Adult Nonfiction	305.9 DISPLACED	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

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Summary

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sympathizer , Viet Thanh Nguyen, called on 17 fellow refugee writers from across the globe to shed light on their experiences, and the result is The Displaced , a powerful dispatch from the individual lives behind current headlines.

Today the world faces an enormous refugee crisis: 68.5 million people fleeing persecution and conflict from Myanmar to South Sudan and Syria, a figure worse than the flight of Jewish and other Europeans during World War II and beyond anything the world has seen in this generation. Yet in the United States, United Kingdom, and other countries with the means to welcome refugees, anti-immigration politics and fear seem poised to shut the door. Even for readers seeking to help, the sheer scale of the problem renders the experience of refugees hard to comprehend.

Viet Nguyen, called "one of our great chroniclers of displacement" (Joyce Carol Oates, The New Yorker ), brings together writers originally from Mexico, Bosnia, Iran, Afghanistan, Soviet Ukraine, Hungary, Chile, Ethiopia, and elsewhere to make their stories heard. They are formidable in their own right--MacArthur Genius grant recipients, National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award finalists, filmmakers, speakers, lawyers, professors, and The New Yorker contributors--and they are all refugees, many as children arriving in London and Toronto, Oklahoma and Minnesota, South Africa and Germany. Their 17 contributions are as diverse as their own lives have been, and yet hold just as many themes in common.

Reyna Grande questions the line between "official" refugee and "illegal" immigrant, chronicling the disintegration of the family forced to leave her behind; Fatima Bhutto visits Alejandro Iñárritu's virtual reality border crossing installation "Flesh and Sand"; Aleksandar Hemon recounts a gay Bosnian's answer to his question, "How did you get here?"; Thi Bui offers two uniquely striking graphic panels; David Bezmozgis writes about uncovering new details about his past and attending a hearing for a new refugee; and Hmong writer Kao Kalia Yang recalls the courage of children in a camp in Thailand.

"There is no single refugee story, and as the editor of The Displaced , a collection of refugee writers exploring and reflecting on their experiences, Viet Thanh Nguyen gives these stories room to breath and unfurl." -- Millions

List of contributors:

Joseph Azam

David Bezmozgis

Fatima Bhutto

Thi Bui

Ariel Dorfman

Lev Golinkin

Reyna Grande

Meron Hadero

Aleksandar Hemon

Joseph Kertes

Porochista Khakpour

Marina Lewycka

Maaza Mengiste

Dina Nayeri

Vu Tran

Novuyo Rosa Tshuma

Kao Kalia Yang

Author Notes

Viet Thanh Nguyen was born in Vietnam in 1971. After the fall of Saigon in 1975, he and his family fled to the United States. The author of three books and the recipient of the 2017 MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" among many other honors, Nguyen is the Aerol Arnold Chair of English, Comparative Literature, American Studies and Ethnicity at University of Southern California. He lives in Los Angeles.

Reviews (1)

School Library Journal Review

Edited by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Vietnamese American professor, this heartbreaking collection of essays humanizes the refugee experience. Accomplished writers tackle the differences between refugees and immigrants and how Donald Trump's election and Brexit influenced the perception of refugees in the United States and Europe. Most moving are tales of parents and children who left their homes for better lives yet lost so much of themselves. Contributors describe harrowing escapes, economically driven evacuations, and wartime disasters that forced them out of many countries: Mexico, Bosnia, Thailand, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Chile, Ukraine, Ethiopia, Hungary, Iran, Zimbabwe, China, and more. Dina Nayeri's "The Ungrateful Refugee," about childhood bullying, and Meron Hadero's "To Walk in Their Shoes," a chronicle of his parents' path from Ethiopia to Germany to Czechoslovakia to Washington, DC, will especially resonate with teens. VERDICT U.S. policy about refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants will continue to make headlines for years-this book is an essential purchase for all libraries and a must for displays on current events.-Sarah Hill, Lake Land College, Mattoon, IL © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Viet Thanh NguyenChris AbaniJoseph AzamDavid BezmozgisFatima BhuttoThi BuiAriel DoremanLev GolinkinReyna GrandeMeron HaderoAleksandar HemonJoseph KertesPorochista KhakpourMarina LewvckaMaaza MengisteDina NayeriRaja ShehadehVu TranNovuyo Rosa TshumaKao Kalia Yang

Introduction	p. 11
The Road	p. 23
Last, First, Middle	p. 31
Common Story	p. 43
Flesh and Sand	p. 51
Perspective and What Gets Lost	p. 61
How Succulent Food Defeated Trump's Wall Before It Has Been Built	p. 67
Guests of the Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa	p. 75
The Parent Who Stays	p. 81
To Walk in Their Shoes	p. 91
God's Fate	p. 99
Second Country	p. 113
13 Ways of Being an Immigrant	p. 121
Refugees and Exiles	p. 129
This Is What the Journey Does	p. 137
The Ungrateful Refugee	p. 145
Am I a Refugee?	p. 159
A Refugee Again	p. 165
New Lands, New Selves	p. 173
Refugee Children: The Yang Warriors	p. 189
List of Contributors	p. 197

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Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (1)

School Library Journal Review

Table of Contents