In partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, Brooklyn Public Library is celebrating Immigrant Heritage Week from April 13 to 19.
The week pays homage to the legacy of April 17, 1907, the day in New York City history the largest number of immigrants (11,000!) entered the U.S. through Ellis Island.
To celebrate, we’ve gathered a list of e-books centered around the immigrant experience in New York, with a special focus on Brooklyn.
Panic in a Suitcase by Yelena Akhtiorskaya
A dazzling novel about a Russian immigrant family living in the Brighton Beach neighborhood of Brooklyn and their struggle to learn the new rules of the American Dream. A searing portrait of hope and ambition and a profound exploration of the power and limits of language itself and its ability to make connections across cultures and generations. —Brian M., Clinton Hill Library
Bright Lines by Tanwi Nandini Islam
A Bangladeshi orphan haunted by her parents' murders moves in with family members in Brooklyn until a fateful coming-of-age summer when her Islamic runaway cousin and she confront painful family secrets. —Brian M., Clinton Hill Library
Open City by Teju Cole
Feeling adrift after ending a relationship, Julius, a young Nigerian doctor living in New York, takes long walks through the city while listening to the stories of fellow immigrants until a shattering truth is revealed. —Robert W., Windsor Terrace Library
The Affairs of the Falcons by Melissa Rivero
This beautiful, deeply urgent novel about one undocumented family's struggle to make it in NYC in the 1990s shows the lengths one woman is willing to go to build a new life, and offers a vivid rendering of the American immigrant experience. —Brian M., Clinton Hill Library
Pride by Ibi Zoboi
This retelling of Pride and Prejudice is all about Brooklyn: Zuri Benitez can’t stand the gentrification in her Bed-Stuy neighborhood. She is proud of her Afro-Latina roots and distrusts the rich family that just moved in across the street. But she can’t deny that although he is stuck up, one of the sons in the new family is very intriguing. —Jessica S., Crown Heights Library
See the full booklist here.
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