- Published: 28 June 2022
- ISBN: 9780807024676
- Imprint: Beacon Press
- Format: Hardback
- Pages: 264
- RRP: $59.99
City of Refugees
The Story of Three Newcomers Who Breathed Life into a Dying American Town
- Published: 28 June 2022
- ISBN: 9780807024676
- Imprint: Beacon Press
- Format: Hardback
- Pages: 264
- RRP: $59.99
"A gripping, fast-moving immersion into the lives of three bright new lights in a once fading town, City of Refugees is a meticulous and timely work of journalism."
—Dina Nayeri, author of The Ungrateful Refugee: What Immigrants Never Tell You
"This is an American tale that everyone should read—the story of three refugees who forged a new life in the Rust Belt. Hartman's journalistic dedication is nothing short of astounding. She spent eight years following her subjects, and it shows. The storytelling is so intimate and the characters feel so deeply real that you will know them like neighbors. Sadia, who is a teenage girl when the book begins, is like the heroine of a great young adult novel. You will root for her on every page, and by the end, you will not be able to wall off your heart from her hopes and dreams."
—Jake Halpern, author of Welcome to the New World
"Susan Hartman's City of Refugees is storytelling at its very best. Her detailed portrait of the ordinary lives of a few extraordinary people and their community gives us an utterly compelling glimpse into the heart and soul of the United States of America in the twenty-first century."
—Jenny McPhee, author and translator
"What a wonderful book! In this remarkably nuanced portrait of three refugees, Susan Hartman manages a skillful end run around the topic's usual politicized discourse. Instead, she concentrates on her subjects' current and past experiences, including religious persecutions, wars, physical danger, and their ambitions, confusions, joys, and fears."
—Lis Harris, author of In Jerusalem: Three Generations of an Israeli Family and a Palestinian Family
"City of Refugees is a tender, intimate, and important book—a carefully reported rebuttal to the xenophobic narratives that define so much of modern American politics and a gripping portrait of what three different refugees have offered the city of Utica through their labors of love."
—Sarah Stillman, staff writer, The New Yorker
"Susan Hartman has written a vital book about the refugee experience in America. With spare and direct prose, she captures the daily joys and heartaches of three refugee families. This is a story of the tenacity of family bonds and the underappreciated contributions of refugees to the vitality of American life. I loved every single page."
—Jen Percy, author of Demon Camp: The Strange and Terrible Saga of a Soldier's Return from War