The Good Immigrant was a landmark book that feels even more essential now than when it was published. Equally essential is this second Good anthology, which collects essays by first- and second-generation immigrants to the USA, in which they explore what it's like to be an "other" in an increasingly divided nation. Contributors, including Chigozie Obioma, Jenny Zhang, Fatimah Asghar and Teju Cole, share powerful stories of living between cultures and languages as they figure out who they are, and where they belong.
The Good Immigrant USA follows the publication of The Good Immigrant in 2016, which comprised pieces from 21 British writers of colour. The title itself is tongue-in-cheek, calling attention to the absurdity of using “good” and “bad” to catalogue millions of individuals...That this is a published book, not an online collection, is a telling decision. These are the sorts of essays you might typically read on a website: they feel urgent and current, and the business of book publishing takes an age in comparison... This book does what books can do better than other media: it devotes space to the shadowy ranges, to the subjects that are not easily graspable – the ineffable, varied, certainly never simple experiences of being an immigrant.
