Beautiful Country

A vivid, and powerful memoir that tells the story of a young Chinese girl who immigrates to America, but discovers terror and struggle that comes with being undocumented in a country whose language you do not speak and who does not provide resources or safety to those in her family's position.

Seven-year-old Qian arrives in New York City in 1994, after her father has escaped China 2 years before. Her parents were highly educated professionals, but in America they were reduced to working in sweatshops and other low-paying jobs that allowed them to remain in the shadows, with the constant fear of their illegal status being discovered hanging over them. Over the next 3 years, the stress and living conditions that their toll physically and mentally on everyone in the family.

This is a story of how secrets destroy families, how little is done to acknowledge or help those living in horrific poverty in the United States, the struggles that people of color have finding/keeping/discovering their identity in a country that holds whiteness as the ideal, and the resilience and persistence of those who work their whole life to break free of the outside forces that hold them down.

***Thank you to Doubleday Books for providing me with the e-ARC for free via NetGalley for an unbiased review.