The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives - Hardcover

"This beautiful collection offers intimate stories of authors from around the world. The chilling details of their ordeals offer us accounts of unspeakable losses. But more important, it offers a nuanced look at finding a new home and identity in places where, often, one is unwanted." -- - Author Meg Medina, The Washingtonian "This heartrending, thought-provoking collection of essays humanizes the refugee experience, describing harrowing escapes, economically driven evacuations, and wartime disasters." -- School Library Journal "Here, in distinct yet thematically connected narratives... displacement - the heart-rending experience so often grappled with by refugees around the world - is made unimaginably real and personal." -- The Minneapolis Star Tribune "The stories are beautifully, and often angrily, told, and felt, and add up collectively to documentary proof of the possibilities - of empathy and humanity" The Observer "In this collection of 17 essays (one consisting of cartoons) by writers who were forced to leave their homes, Viet Thanh Nguyen, a Pulitzer-winning novelist and himself a Vietnamese refugee to America, begins to assemble one. In so doing he gives ordinary Westerners a heart-wrenching insight into the uprooted lives led in their midst...the collection succeeds in demonstrating that this dispersed community in some ways resembles other nations. It has its founding myths, but its citizens all have their own tragedies, victories and pain-and each has a story to tell." The Economist "In The Displaced, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Viet Thanh Nguyen, himself a refugee, brings together a host of prominent refugee writers to explore and illuminate the refugee experience. Featuring original essays by a collection of writers from around the world, The Displaced is an indictment of closing our doors, and a powerful look at what it means to be forced to leave home and find a place of refuge." The Guardian Bookshop "At a time when empathy is at an all-time low for people seeking refuge from war, oppression and violence, this is is a key read." Stylist magazine "Nguyen and 17 other writers share their own experiences with displacement and immigration, and their... stories remind us why every culture needs newcomers." The Week "The world is full of people who left the place they were born just to stay alive. We hope this book finds its way into many hands and hearts, giving us a glimmer of empathy." San Francisco Chronicle "...an incisive and heartbreaking exploration of the refugee crisis..." Bustle "Each essay is worthwhile." - Lit Hub "The essays are consistently both eloquent and riveting." World Literature Today "Together, the stories share similar threads of loss and adjustment, of the confusion of identity, of wounds that heal and those that don't, of the scars that remain." The San Francisco Chronicle "In a decade characterized by massive global displacement that seems likely to grow worse, this collection is both a reminder of the lives altered or destroyed by geopolitical happenings, and a gesture of aid." - The Millions "Poignant and timely, these essays ask us to live with our eyes wide open during a time of geo-political crisis." Electric Literature

In January 2017, Donald Trump signed an executive order stopping entry to the United States from seven predominantly Muslim countries and dramatically cutting the number of refugees allowed to resettle in the United States each year. The American people spoke up, with protests, marches, donations, and lawsuits that quickly overturned the order. But the refugee caps remained. In The Displaced, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Viet Thanh Nguyen, himself a refugee, brings together a host of prominent refugee writers to explore and illuminate the refugee experience. Featuring original essays by a collection of writers from around the world, The Displaced is an indictment of closing our doors, and a powerful look at what it means to be forced to leave home and find a place of refuge.