5 Books About Race, Immigration, and Multiculturalism
to build empathy and understanding
Over the last year, many of us have done a lot of thinking about race and what it means to live in a multicultural society. Sometimes, listening to other people’s stories is what best helps us when we’re trying to think through what can seem like quite abstract issues. The fiction, poetry, essays and memoir here are great ways into greater empathy and understanding.
The Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Q Rauf
This is a child’s perspective on refugees, told with “heart and humour”, and “highlighting the importance of friendship and kindness in a world that doesn’t always makes sense”. To be honest, that sounds like something we could all do with.
British Museum, by Daljit Nagra
Daljit Nagra was the first Poet in Residence for Radio Four, the British equivalent of NPR. He writes often of the immigrant experience, explores and questions British institutions, and uses language inventively, sometimes echoing the “Punglish” of Indian immigrants to the UK. British Museum is “a book that asks profound questions of our ethics and responsibilities at a time of great challenge to our sense of national identity”. It’s his third collection and is going on my TBR list, because if I’m going to read any poetry (and I try to, though I admit it takes effort), it sounds like this should be where I start this year.
The Good Immigrant USA, ed. Chimene Suleyman
The Good Immigrant is an American book, but it’s a spin-off of a British bestseller by my publisher, Unbound. The UK version was edited by Nikesh Shukla, who has since launched the Good Literary Agency and The Good Journal, to both showcase and nurture writing talent among the British BAME community, i.e. authors of colour. The American version is edited by U.S.-based British writer Chimene Suleyman and features essays by first- and second-generation immigrants including Chigozie Obioma, Alexander Chee, and Jenny Zhang, exploring what it means to be “othered” in the country that is their home.
Stubborn Archivist, by Yara Rodrigues Fowler
If you like your books raw and a little experimental, à la Chemistry or Dept of Speculation, Stubborn Archivist is likely a good pick for you. In this novel, a young woman from South London grows up between two cultures, frequently returning to visit Brazil and learning to connect with her other home there and what it means for her to be both British and Brazilian.
Book Riot’s Nicole Froio loves this book and has called it “proof #OwnVoices is necessary”. Here’s what she said about it:
“An #OwnVoices triumph…A daring debut novel, when the narrative is a mix of stunning prose and poetry…We need more novels like this, novels that tell stories that haven’t been told before. What is interesting about Stubborn Archivist is that it feels completely new, even though these stories have been told by word-of-mouth through generations of immigrant women. We need more novels that make people like me feel deeply seen as an immigrant, a Brazilian woman, and a daughter.”
The Life and Times of a Very British Man, by Kamal Ahmed
For this one — The Bookseller‘s Non-Fiction Book of the Month when it was published — you’ll have to cheat and go to Blackwells.com, since it’s not (yet) being published in the U.S. except in audiobook form. Kamal Ahmed, who’s half-English, half-Sudanese, was brought up in 1970s London, and often told to “go home” — even though he was born just down the road. In his book, he uses his own story as well as political analysis to argue that multiculturalism is the foundation of British society and that “when we consider the often fractious debate about our identity, there are still great grounds for optimism”.
When you click on one of my links and buy the book, I get a few affiliate pennies, which helps support my work. Thanks for doing that!
