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Glenview Reads Together The Book of Unknown Americans Read Alike Titles |
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The Book of Unknown Americans
by Cristina Henríquez
Moving from Mexico to the United States when their daughter suffers a near-fatal accident, the Rivera family confronts cultural barriers, their daughter's difficult recovery, and her developing relationship with a Panamanian boy.
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Crescent by Diana Abu-JaberNever married, living with an Iraqi-immigrant uncle and devoted dog, and working as a chef in a Lebanese restaurant, thirty-nine-year-old Sirine finds her life turned upside down by a handsome Arabic literature professor who not only awakens unexpected feelings, but also stirs up memories of her parents and questions about her Arab-American identity.
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Americanah: A Novel by Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieSeparated by differing ambitions after falling in love in occupied Nigeria, beautiful Ifemelu experiences triumph and defeat in America while Obinze endures an undocumented status in London - until the pair is reunited in their homeland fifteen years later.
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How the García Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia AlvarezForced to flee their native Caribbean island after an attempted coup, the Garcias - Carlos, Laura, and their four daughters - must learn a new way of life in the Bronx, while trying to cling to the old ways that they loved.
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The Tortilla Curtain by T. Coraghessan BoyleThe lives of two different couples - wealthy Los Angeles liberals Delaney and Kyra Mossbacher, and Candido and America Rincon, a pair of Mexican illegals - suddenly collide, in a story that unfolds from the shifting viewpoints of the various characters.
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We Need New Names: A Novel by NoViolet BulawayoA moving story that follows 10-year-old Zimbabwe native, Darling, as she escapes the closed schools and paramilitary police control of her homeland in search of opportunity and freedom with an aunt in America.
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Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge DanticatTwelve-year-old Sophie Caco is removed from her impoverished village and sent to live in New York with her mother, a woman she barely knows. There she learns about a terrible truth that shadows her family.
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We Never Asked for Wings: A Novel by Vanessa DiffenbaughWhen her parents return to Mexico, 15-year-old Letty Espinosa is forced to become a parent to her young sister and considers a risky move that jeopardizes their fragile hopes for the future.
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House of Sand and Fog by Andre DubusWhen a former colonel of the Iranian Air Force and his family purchase a small California home at auction, they are faced with a great conflict as the former owner and her police officer boyfriend fight to get it back at any cost.
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A Replacement Life: A Novel by Boris FishmanDetermined to make his name as a writer, Slava Gelman, an immigrant living in Brooklyn, New York, forges Holocaust-restitution claims for old Russian Jews until he, intoxicated by his inventions, risks exposure and commits an irrevocable act that finally grants him a sense of home in America.
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America for Beginners by Leah FranquiA widow from India travels to California to learn the truth about what happened to the son who was declared dead shortly after he revealed his sexual orientation to their traditional family.
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An Untamed State by Roxane GayA debut novel about a woman kidnapped for ransom, her captivity as her father refuses to pay and her husband fights for her release over thirteen days, and her struggle to come to terms with the ordeal in its aftermath.
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Exit West: A Novel by Mohsin HamidTwo young lovers engage in a furtive affair shaped by local unrest on the eve of a civil war that erupts in a cataclysmic bombing attack, forcing them to abandon their previous home and lives.
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A Free Life
by Ha Jin
In the wake of the Tiananmen Square massacre, Nan Wu, who had studied political science in the U.S. in the mid-1980s, leaves China with his wife, Pingping, and son, Taotao, to seek the freedom of the West, embarking on a migration that takes them through the heart of contemporary America in search of financial stability, belonging, and the American dream.
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Together Tea
by Marjan Kamali
Constantly at odds, 25-year-old Mina and her mother Darya, to work things out, travel to Iran where they, back in the familiarity of their hometown, begin to understand each other and come to terms with the choices they have made until two men cause them to question their beliefs and traditions.
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Lucy
by Jamaica Kincaid
Lucy, a nineteen-year-old girl from the West Indies, comes to North America to work as an au pair and observes the unhealthy realities of the seemingly happy family that employs her, in a new edition of the acclaimed coming-of-age novel.
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Girl in Translation by Jean KwokMigrating with her mother from Hong Kong to Brooklyn, Kimberly Chang begins a secret double life as an exceptional schoolgirl during the day and sweatshop worker at night, an existence also marked by a first crush and the pressure to save her family from poverty.
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The Namesake by Jhumpa LahiriA portrait of the immigrant experience follows the Ganguli family from their traditional life in India through their arrival in Massachusetts in the late 1960s and their difficult melding into an American way of life.
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Preparation for the Next Life by Atticus LishZou Lei, orphan of the desert, migrates to work in America and finds herself slaving in New York's kitchens. She falls in love with a young man whose heart has been broken in another desert. A new life may be possible if together they can survive homelessness, lockup, and the young man's nightmares, which may be more prophecy than madness.
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How to Read the Air by Dinaw MengestuThe son of Ethopian immigrants decides to retrace the journey his parents took just after they moved to America, but before he was born, in order to make sense of the volatile generational and cultural ties that have forged him.
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Behold the Dreamers: a novel
by Imbolo Mbue
An immigrant working class couple from Cameroon and the upper class American family for whom they work find their lives and marriages shaped by financial circumstances, infidelities, secrets, and the 2008 recession.
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Jasmine
by Bharati Mukherjee
Jasmine, a young widow in India, moves to the United States to begin a new life.
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Pioneer Girl
by Bich Minh Nguyen
Discovering a family heirloom that her mother may have received from Laura Ingalls Wilder, PhD graduate Lee Lien explores the tenuous connection between her ancestors and the famous pioneer author only to discover a trail of clues that lead to fateful encounters.
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Netherland
by Joseph O'Neill
Abandoned amid the offbeat inhabitants of the Chelsea Hotel when his English wife and son return to London following September 11th, Hans, a banker originally from the Netherlands, struggles to find himself in his adopted country, until he stumbles upon a vibrant New York cricket subculture and the charismatic Chuck Ramkissoon. Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize.
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My New American Life
by Francine Prose
"While working for an idealistic college professor, 26-year old Lula, an Albanian trying to make a better life for herself in America, finds her life taking a complicated turn when her Albanian ""brothers"" return, in this powerful novel set in the aftermath of 9/11.
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If You Eat, You Never Die: Chicago Tales
by Tony Romano
A evocative collection of short stories centers around the Comingos, members of a first generation Italian-American family living in a small neighborhood outside of 1950s Chicago, interweaving the dreams, aspirations, and experiences of Italian immigrants Fabio and Lucia Comingo and their sons, Michelino and Giacomo.
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Blue Boy
by Rakesh Satyal
Kiran, a young Indian American boy who finds it impossible to get the knack of "normalcy," makes a startling revelation about himself that leads him on a remarkably strange and highly entertaining journey of self-discovery.
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Family Life: A Novel by Akhil SharmaFinally joining their father in America, Ajay and Birju enjoy their new, extraordinary life until tragedy strikes, leaving one brother incapacitated and the other practically orphaned in this strange land in the second novel from the author of An Obedient Father.
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The Russian Debutante's Handbook by Gary ShteyngartIn a novel about being an outsider in America and what it means to be an American, Vladimir, a young Russian-American immigrant, pursues his dreams of success, wealth, and a girlfriend, as his quest takes him deep into uncharted territory.
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The Mango Bride
by Marivi Soliven
Banished to America, Amparo Guerrero forges a new life as an interpreter at Berkeley, while Beverly Obejas tries to find a better life by becoming a mail-order bride.
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Brooklyn: a novel by Colm TóibínForced to leave behind her family in Ireland to accept a job in 1950s America, bookkeeper Eilis Lacey unexpectedly falls in love with an Italian man with a big family, who she fears losing when tragic news arrives from home.
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