During the last decades, globalization has advanced by giant steps, shaping a world as disturbed as it is full of nuances as bitter as it is ultimately satisfying for those who leave their land behind in search of new opportunities.
With episodes such as the wave of refugees from Syria or continents such as Africa and South America that continue to embrace the foothills of the West, these 5 books on immigration they become readings of rabid actuality not exempt from a posh narrative quality.
Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Turned into the most contemporary feminist voice on the African continent, the Nigerian
Unusual Land, by Jhumpa Lahiri
One of my most recent readings begins with a quote from Nathaniel Hawthorne that says, "Human nature will not bear fruit, like the potato, if it is planted over and over again for too many generations in the same depleted land." A phrase that perfectly defines el collage of stories of Hindu immigrants in American lands encompassed by this storybook by Jhumpa Lahiri, Pulitzer Award Winning Author of Bengali Parents.
The wonderful short life of Oscar Wao
Nerd, marginalized and misunderstood, Óscar is the son of a woman who emigrated from Santo Domingo after the death of Trujillo, one of the bloodiest dictators of the XNUMXth century. Combining humor with drama, Junot Díaz presents us with a light and different analysis of the Caribbean diaspora in a New Jersey neighborhood, in the United States. The novel was designated by The New York Times as the best literary work of the year 2007.
The Book of the Nameless Americans, by Cristina Henríquez
Published by Malpaso in our country, this novel with a suggestive title tells the story of two families, the Rivera and the Toro, from Mexico and Panama respectively, united by the love story of their children Maribel and Mayor. As a background, interspersed his desire to reach the United States and the testimonies of people from all over Latin America to a promised land in which all that glitters is not gold.
Emigrants, by Shaun Tan
In this list there is also space for the graphic novel, especially when it comes to Emigrants, a work by Shaun Tan published in 2006. A jewel of 128 pages that combines the letters with illustrations by the author himself in which we travel through a fictional world similar to the one our spiced up with futuristic and surreal motifs that serve as a setting to tell the universal story of a father who decides to leave his family behind to cross the ocean and seek a better life elsewhere. Highly recommended.
What are your favorite immigration books?
"When he was happy and undocumented" of the adventures of Gabriel García Márquez in our country, Venezuela, humor and love in a fresh, very humorous story.
A moving novel about a girl who wants to marry a foreigner so that she can leave her country in order to help her parents. Realistic, entertaining and deep at the same time. It's called A KIDNEY FOR YOUR GIRL (author Lourdes María Monert)