{"product_id":"the-ungrateful-refugee-isbn-9781646220212","title":"The Ungrateful Refugee","description":"\u003cb\u003eA Finalist for the 2019 Kirkus Prize in Nonfiction\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Nayeri combines her own experience with those of refugees she meets as an adult, telling their stories with tenderness and reverence.” —\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Nayeri weaves her empowering personal story with those of the ‘feared swarms’ . . . Her family’s escape from Isfahan to Oklahoma, which involved waiting in Dubai and Italy, is wildly fascinating . . . Using energetic prose, Nayeri is an excellent conduit for these heart–rending stories, eschewing judgment and employing care in threading the stories in with her own . . . This is a memoir laced with stimulus and plenty of heart at a time when the latter has grown elusive.” —\u003ci\u003eStar–Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e (Minneapolis)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAged eight, Dina Nayeri fled Iran along with her mother and brother and lived in the crumbling shell of an Italian hotel–turned–refugee camp. Eventually she was granted asylum in America. She settled in Oklahoma, then made her way to Princeton University. In this book, Nayeri weaves together her own vivid story with the stories of other refugees and asylum seekers in recent years, bringing us inside their daily lives and taking us through the different stages of their journeys, from escape to asylum to resettlement. In these pages, a couple fall in love over the phone, and women gather to prepare the noodles that remind them of home. A closeted queer man tries to make his case truthfully as he seeks asylum, and a translator attempts to help new arrivals present their stories to officials.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNayeri confronts notions like “the swarm,” and, on the other hand, “good” immigrants. She calls attention to the harmful way in which Western governments privilege certain dangers over others. With surprising and provocative questions, \u003ci\u003eThe Ungrateful Refugee\u003c\/i\u003e challenges us to rethink how we talk about the refugee crisis.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e“A writer who confronts issues that are key to the refugee experience.” —Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of \u003ci\u003eThe Sympathizer\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Refugees\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eThe Ungrateful Refugee\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFinalist for the 2019 Kirkus Prize in Nonfiction\u003cbr\u003eA \u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e Best Book of the Year in Nonfiction\u003cbr\u003eAn American Booksellers Association Indie Next Selection\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Dina Nayeri's powerful writing confronts issues that are key to the refugee experience.\" —\u003cb\u003eViet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of \u003ci\u003eThe Sympathizer\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Refugees\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Ms. Nayeri's personal account is sure to be a powerful statement in the current political climate.\" \u003cb\u003e—Rashida Tlaib, U.S. Congressional Representative, 13th District of Michigan\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Nayeri, the author of two novels including \u003ci\u003eRefuge\u003c\/i\u003e, uses her first work of nonfiction to remind readers of the pain and horrors refugees face before and long after their settlement. It is timely, as President Trump has made barring refugees from the United States a priority, and the Western world is plagued with a surge in nativism. Nayeri combines her own experience with those of refugees she meets as an adult, telling their stories with tenderness and reverence.\" —\u003cb\u003eNazila Fathi, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Nayeri weaves her empowering personal story with those of the 'feared swarms,' asylum–seekers in Greece and the Netherlands. Her family’s escape from Isfahan to Oklahoma, which involved waiting in Dubai and Italy, is wildly fascinating, and even by today’s standards it remains miraculous . . . Using energetic prose, Nayeri is an excellent conduit for these heart–rending stories, eschewing judgment and employing care in threading the stories in with her own . . . This is a memoir laced with stimulus and plenty of heart at a time when the latter has grown elusive.\" —\u003cb\u003eAngela Ajayi, \u003ci\u003eStar–Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e (Minneapolis)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A work of astonishing, insistent importance . . . A book full of revelatory truths, moments where we are plunged deeply and painfully into the quotidian experience of the refugee.\" —\u003cb\u003eAlex Preston, \u003ci\u003eThe Observer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A thoughtful investigation combining a memoir of [Nayeri's] former life—which includes a dramatic departure from her home country and two years of adjustment before arrival and 'acceptance' in the US—and a collection of case studies interrogating what it means to have been, or to be, a refugee. Nayeri robustly challenges the perceived obligation on the displaced person to revoke or tone down their former identity; to assimilate, to be a 'good investment' for any country that has admitted them. It is a provocative work . . . This wide–ranging, reasoned book is no polemic: its observations are self–reflective, contemplative and significant.\" —\u003cb\u003eCatherine Taylor, \u003ci\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Ungrateful Refugee\u003c\/i\u003e argues that ungratefulness is one of many appropriate responses to the circumstances in which refugees find themselves, that there are as many reactions as there are people who wear the label of refugee at some point in their life. And it is a critique of a system that asks refugees and other immigrants to perform themselves in order to fit a narrow set of definitions in order to be granted the very least any country or person can offer—safety . . . \u003ci\u003eThe Ungrateful Refugee\u003c\/i\u003e is the work of an author at the top of her game.\" —\u003cb\u003eJessica Goudeau, \u003ci\u003eGuernica\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A gallery of powerful portraits of the experiences of those fleeing persecution and war, and those who help and support them. This is not comfortable reading, but it is compelling. In moving, poetic prose Nayeri unravels this difficult subject, never dodging troubling questions.\" —\u003cb\u003eLynnda Wardle, \u003ci\u003eGlasgow Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"This book’s combination of personal narrative and collective refugee story is compelling, necessary, and deeply thought and felt. Writing with truth and beauty, Nayeri reckons with her own past as a refugee . . . This valuable account of refugee lives will grip readers' attention.\" —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist \u003c\/i\u003e(starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"With inventive, powerful prose, Nayeri demonstrates what should be obvious: that refugees give up everything in their native lands only when absolutely necessary—if they remain, they may face poverty, physical torture, or even death . . . A unique, deeply thought–out refugee saga perfect for our moment.\" —\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eDINA NAYERI\u003c\/b\u003e was born in Iran during the revolution and arrived in America when she was ten years old. She is the winner of the UNESCO City of Literature Paul Engle Prize and a National Endowment for the Arts literature grant, as well as a finalist for the Rome Prize and a \u003ci\u003eGranta\u003c\/i\u003e New Voices Project pick. Nayeri is the author of two novels—\u003ci\u003eRefuge\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eA Teaspoon of Earth and Sea\u003c\/i\u003e—and her work has been translated into fourteen languages and published in \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eGranta\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Best American Short Stories\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe O. Henry Prize Stories\u003c\/i\u003e, and many other publications. \u003ci\u003eThe Ungrateful Refugee\u003c\/i\u003e is her first book of nonfiction. A graduate of Princeton, Harvard, and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, she lives in Paris, where she is a Fellow at the Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination.","brand":"Catapult","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46301640130789,"sku":"NP9781646220212","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781646220212.jpg?v=1767741996","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-ungrateful-refugee-isbn-9781646220212","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}