The immigrant experience begins with a promise of adventure and a better life but traveling halfway around the world brings unexpected realities. These novels that explore the stories of immigrants are available to borrow from the Lititz Public Library
Where Women Are Kings by Christie Watson
Taken away from his birth mother, the child of a Nigerian immigrant in England is moved from one foster parent to another until he settles into a family willing to take on the challenge of his tragic past.
Honolulu by Alan Brennert
Journeying to 1914 Hawaii as a mail-order bride, a Korean woman finds her hopes devastated by the realities of a rushed marriage to a bitter laborer.
The Saint of Lost Things by Christopher Castellani
Set in 1953, three members of the tight-knit Italian neighborhood in Wilmington, Delaware attempt to overcome personal loss as they realize the American dream.
The Lullaby of Polish Girls by Dagmara Dominczyk
Never feeling as though she belongs after her parents emigrate to American in the 1980s, a girl finds recognition when she is sent back to Poland to visit her grandmother.
City of Slaughter by Cynthia Drew
At the beginning of the 20th century, two sisters flee the Russian pogroms to live with Jewish relatives on New York’s Lower East Side, eventually taking jobs at the ill-fated Triangle Shirtwaist Company.
Metropolis by Elizabeth Gaffney
Following a fire in P.T. Barnum’s circus stable, a young German immigrant becomes caught up in New York’s criminal underworld and falls in love with an Irish girl.
How It All Began by Penelope Lively
The mugging of a retired school teacher on a London street has unexpected repercussions for her friends and neighbors when it reveals a secret, leads to a business partnership and helps an immigrant reinvent his life.
Bridge of Scarlet Leaves by Kristina McMorris
A violinist elopes with the ambitious son of Japanese immigrants but after Pearl Harbor is bombed she is seen as the enemy and must sacrifice her ambitions when he is interned at a war relocation camp.
The Wives of Henry Oades by Johanna Moran
After his wife and children are kidnapped during a Maori uprising, a New Zealand accountant books passage to California where he marries a young widow with a new baby.
The Chicken Hanger by Ben Rehder
An illegal immigrant’s quiet life is disrupted when he learns his brother has been shot after crossing the Texas-Mexico border.
When We Were Strangers by Pamela Schoenewaldt
A young immigrant seamstress travels from her isolated Italian mountain village to America and workhouse servitude to achieve her dream of making dresses for gentlewomen.
The Vanishing Point by Mary Sharratt
A young woman, with an education forbidden to most women, journeys to Maryland and reunites with her sister who was married off to a distant cousin after ruining prospects in England.
The Tin Horse by Janice Steinberg
Sixty years after her twin sister ran away from their Los Angeles Jewish-immigrant neighborhood, a woman finds a possible clue to her sister’s whereabouts.
Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
Leaving her home in post-World War II Ireland to work as a bookkeeper in Brooklyn, a woman discovers romance with a charming Italian man until devastating news threatens her happiness.
June 26, 2015