Books about being torn between two countries

Culture clash, identity and much more

On the "what to read" part of my last essay, I had a number of choices of books to recommend. In recent years, I have read many books about girls and women who are immigrants (or whose parents are immigrants), which explore the idea of home and belonging.

It makes sense, since I am an immigrant myself and many of the books are also from the book club I participate in with girls who themselves are from the US, Brazil, Spain, India and Germany. We choose this topic again and again because it's relatable to us all.

The books vary a lot in the approach and which countries they portray, but they all talk about this struggle of not feeling quite here or there. Anyway, since I have read many books on this topic I thought of sending out a list of them here:

Americanah by Chimamanda Adichie

In Americanah we follow Ifemelu, a Nigerian girl who moved to the US to attend university. There, she dwells on her fears and insecurities in a foreign country. She faces cultural differences and is first confronted with being black and everything it entails.

Although it's not a memoir, from Chimamanda's own speeches we can see that Ifemelu was highly based on her own experience of attending university in the US and how this experience shaped her notions of racism, once she was first confronted with it.

This was the first book I read on the topic of living abroad and I still consider it one of the best. Chimamanda writes and speaks so clearly, it's enviable.

Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad

Enter Ghost follows a Palestinian actress called Sonia while she participates in a Hamlet production in Palestine. While the play isn't intended to come across as politically charged, it quickly becomes one after several attempts by the Israeli army to prevent it from taking place.

Sonia grew up in the UK and has spent most of her life, except for a few vacations, away from her country. She constantly compares herself to her sister who lives in their original town and teaches sociology at university. As compared to her sister, she feels she's not involved enough in the Palestinian cause. Also, she doesn’t understand her family and origin country that well, and by not living there she feels left out.

By acting in this Hamlet production she finds herself connected to her land and understands that art is political and can provoke change. Being an actress can also be a powerful act of resistance.

And we as readers feel she can finally let go of feeling guilty about her choices and be able to reconcile her life in the UK with the life she could have lived in Palestine.

Crying in the H Mart by Michelle Zauner

Due to a cancer diagnosis, Michelle has to return home to care for her mother in Oregon. It turns out that everything she avoided by being half-Korean was exactly what she craved when reconnecting with her mom during her last months.

The memoir recounts Michelle Zauner's experiences growing up as one of the few Asian American students at her school; of struggling with her mother’s particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother’s tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food.

It is a compelling read, discussing topics such as cancer, taking care of your parents, how missing someone who died doesn't mean they were flawless, and grief. Also, the experience of being an immigrant or the daughter of an immigrant. How it feels to be divided. One person with two different cultures and families in far away places.

This Motherless Land by Nikki May

Born in Nigeria, Funke, a ten-year-old daughter of an English mother and a Nigerian father is sent to England after her world is torn apart when her mother and younger brother die in a car accident that she survives unscathed. She has to start her life over again in the UK living with her mother’s prejudiced white family while still living through grief.

In the UK her only solace is her cousin Liv, who becomes her friend and protector. The book will follow both girls as they grow up and explore this difficult relationship between two families and two countries. I read this book extremely fast and couldn’t put it down. It dives deep into grief, prejudice, identity crises and toxic family dynamics.

Home is not a Country by Sofia Elhillo

Home is not a country is written in the form of a long poem or a novel in verse. Even so, it is still easy to read. It tells the story of Nima, a first-generation Muslim teenager who feels caught between her life in the United States and her dreams of her homeland (which is unnamed, but hints at being Sudan). Having lost her father before birth, Nima is preoccupied with the life she feels was taken from her when her mom immigrated to the US. She can't help but think of her home country and who her parents were back then. When she is bullied and called a terrorist at school, she tries to get as close to that old world as she can.

Her story captures a familiar wistfulness for the places one comes from but has never truly known. It also explores the toughness of being an immigrant in the US, especially for Muslims.

The Anthill, by Julianne Pachico

The Anthill explores the sense of belonging and living in two different parts of the world. It follows Lina, born in Medellín, Colombia, who immigrated to the UK when she was eight. She returns to Colombia to reconnect with a childhood friend in hopes of reestablishing her own roots. There, she lives and volunteers in a poor neighborhood in Medellín.

The changes in the city from being the center of narcotraffic to a safer and more modern city are always present in the narrative. There is some magic realism in this book, probably paying homage to the most famous magic realistic writer who is also Colombian, Gabriel Garcia Mendez.

Infinite Country by Patricia Engel

Elena and Mauro meet and fall in love as teens. Their sweet romance is a bright spot of hope against brutal Bogotá. After having their first child, they set their sights on the United States for a better life, higher wages, and more opportunities. There they find many difficulties and eventually Mauro and their eldest daughter Talia are deported back to Colombia, where she grows up far from her mom and siblings.

Infinite Country tells the story of a Colombian family torn apart by immigration enforcement in the US. It is filled with the sense of "what if?” but unlike other stories, it's caused by an external and brutal force.

Little Bee by Chris Cleave.

When Little Bee arrived in the UK from Nigeria, she was 14 years old. She spends the first two years of her life in an immigration detention camp outside London. Once out, she walks to the one address she has, where a British couple she met on a Nigerian beach resides with their small kid.

This is probably the most hard-hitting book on the list, one that really dives into the immigration and refugee crises in the UK. While most other characters from the other books on the list are middle class or even rich, Little Bee has nothing in her name and depends completely on a foreign system and people.

If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English by Noor Naga

An Egyptian-American graduate of Columbia University is having an identity crisis. She escapes her divorcing parents in New York and heads to Cairo to try to find herself. Once there, she is considered "the other," but also enjoys the immediate status that comes with being American. When she meets an unemployed man from a poor village and enters into a relationship with him, she begins to question how this relationship intertwines with how women are seen in this society but also her own power over him.

The story is told from two different points of view, and it challenges the traditional sense of hero and heroine. It is about colonialism, identity, class, and sex. I enjoyed this book but I was also a bit annoyed with how it was written.