THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER
"This riveting, courageous memoir ought to be mandatory reading for every American." —Michelle Alexander, New York Times bestselling author of The New Jim Crow
"l cried reading this book, realizing more fully what my parents endured." —Amy Tan, New York Times bestselling author of The Joy Luck Club and Where the Past Begins
"This book couldn't be more timely and more necessary." —Dave Eggers, New York Times bestselling author of What Is the What and The Monk of Mokha
Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, called "the most famous undocumented immigrant in America," tackles one of the defining issues of our time in this explosive and deeply personal call to arms.
"This is not a book about the politics of immigration. This book––at its core––is not about immigration at all. This book is about homelessness, not in a traditional sense, but in the unsettled, unmoored psychological state that undocumented immigrants like myself find ourselves in. This book is about lying and being forced to lie to get by; about passing as an American and as a contributing citizen; about families, keeping them together, and having to make new ones when you can't. This book is about constantly hiding from the government and, in the process, hiding from ourselves. This book is about what it means to not have a home.
After 25 years of living illegally in a country that does not consider me one of its own, this book is the closest thing I have to freedom."
—Jose Antonio Vargas, from Dear America
THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER
"This riveting, courageous memoir ought to be mandatory reading for every American." —Michelle Alexander, New York Times bestselling author of The New Jim Crow
"l cried reading this book, realizing more fully what my parents endured." —Amy Tan, New York Times bestselling author of The Joy Luck Club and Where the Past Begins
"This book couldn't be more timely and more necessary." —Dave Eggers, New York Times bestselling author of What Is the What and The Monk of Mokha
Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, called "the most famous undocumented immigrant in America," tackles one of the defining issues of our time in this explosive and deeply personal call to arms.
"This is not a book about the politics of immigration. This book––at its core––is not about immigration at all. This book is about homelessness, not in a traditional sense, but in the unsettled, unmoored psychological state that undocumented immigrants like myself find ourselves in. This book is about lying and being forced to lie to get by; about passing as an American and as a contributing citizen; about families, keeping them together, and having to make new ones when you can't. This book is about constantly hiding from the government and, in the process, hiding from ourselves. This book is about what it means to not have a home.
After 25 years of living illegally in a country that does not consider me one of its own, this book is the closest thing I have to freedom."
—Jose Antonio Vargas, from Dear America
Reviews-
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September 1, 2018
As if to dare the attorney general to come find him, Philippines-born immigrant journalist Vargas, a winner of the Pulitzer Prize, owns up to being "illegal"--but not criminal.As the author's account opens and closes, he has been arrested in preparation for a "removal proceeding," the consequence of his mother's decision to put him on a plane with a supposed uncle and send him to the promised land of the United States at the age of 12 in 1993. That uncle was a smuggler, and the life Vargas found wasn't all that it was supposed to be; neither did he have the papers--real ones, anyway--to support things like getting a driver's license or going to the polls. Given the mood of the nation, which, as the author notes, officially no longer characterizes itself as "a nation of immigrants," it's understandable that he is perplexed and worried at his situation, perhaps less intuitively so that he should confess it in a book that almost certainly will not change many minds: Those opposed to immigration, illegal and legal, will dismiss his pleas, and those for it will share his indignation. Of more interest to readers on the middle ground, if there are any, is the author's account of how few and technically complex the supposed paths for legal immigration are these days--and how easy it is to be deported. Thus he had to wrestle when, having appeared on-air to discuss his plea, he was invited by Nancy Pelosi to be her guest in Congress, an invitation that an immigration-lawyer friend urged him to decline: "It took .25 seconds for the Breitbart website to pull up 725 articles under the search 'Jose Antonio Vargas.' Breitbart runs immigration policy in the United States." Though in fact detained, the author was released and now lives in a kind of legal limbo while waiting to see what, if anything, will happen.An unusual firsthand report from the immigration wars.COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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Starred review from September 15, 2018
At the age of 12, Vargas was brought to the U.S. from the Philippines without papers, assisted by a "coyote," a term a Border Patrol agent explains to him as he is detained as an adult in McAllen, Texas. In this excruciatingly timely memoir, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Vargas implements his strategy of radical transparency, purposefully laying out his undocumented status for the world to see. Although this book mimics a straightforward memoir, it is couched in questions vital for every reader's consideration: Who "deserves" citizenship? Why is migration considered historically courageous for white people but a crime for people of color? Like a cracked mirror, Vargas' story is splintered through a myriad of selves?son, journalist, gay man, undocumented resident, advocate?each sliver burnished by education and inspiration, courtesy in large part of the local library, where he soaks up American culture from E. L. Doctorow to Toni Morrison, becoming an American in every sense but the legal one. Vargas' frank and fearless voice thoughtfully and intentionally challenges readers to confront the call for action at the heart of this book: the urgent need for "a new language around migration and the meaning of citizenship."(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.) -
October 15, 2018
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, filmmaker, and founder and CEO of the nonprofit media advocacy organization Define American, Vargas is among America's best-known undocumented immigrants, having come here illegally at age 12 from the Philippines. Since he acknowledged his status, he has advocated for migrant and immigrant rights worldwide; here, he considers what it means to be American and how it feels when you are considered alien in your own home. With a 150,000-copy first printing.
Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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San Francisco Chronicle
"An engaging read, and a deeply moving memoir of coming of age with the odds stacked against you and not only forging a remarkable life for yourself, but becoming a voice for transformation and cultural change." — San Francisco Chronicle
"The moments when Vargas describes how profoundly alienated he feels from his own family ate the most candid and crushing parts of the book....Dear America is a potent rejoinder to those who tell Vargas he's supposed to 'get in line' for citizenship, as if there were a line instead og a confounding jumble of vague statues and executive orders." — New York Times
"In Dear America, we get to know a young Vargas who was constantly told to stay in the shadows but whose tenacity and devotion had other plans for him." — Los Angeles Magazine
"Vargas writes with a newspaper reporter's spare, forceful prose, but he's searching and highly introspective." — Mother Jones
"[Dear America] is the voice of one man balancing between the poles of his identity. No matter one's status, that's something everyone can relate to." — Providence Journal
"[A] stirring, soulful, and ultimately damning autobiography." — AV Club
"A thought-provoking, moving, and highly personal memoir of Vargas's struggle to belong. Recommended for all readers interested in immigration issues and American identity." — Library Journal
"Excruciatingly timely. . . .Vargas' frank and fearless voice thoughtfully and intentionally challenges readers to confront the call for action at the heart of this book; the urgent need for "a new language around migration and the meaning of citizenship." — Booklist (starred review)
"A clarion call for humanity in a time of unprecedented focus on the 11 million people living in America without a clear path to citizenship. Vargas writes passionately about the undeniable intersection between race, class, and immigration and traces the bitter history of American immigratin policy." — BookPage
"Jose Antonio Vargas's eloquent and emotional book bears witness to a basic truth: we should not be defined by our legal status, but by who we are...His voice is an important voice that needs to be heard by all Americans, whether they are Americans by birth or by choice." — Sheryl Sandberg, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Option B and Lean In
"This riveting, courageous memoir ought to be mandatory reading for every American...The pressing question from these pages isn't whether Jose deserves to be a citizen but whether we, as a nation, deserve the bravery and generosity of spirit that he offers us with an open heart and mind." — Michelle Alexander, New York Times bestselling author of The New Jim Crow
"Dear America is a daring and honest book that perhaps so many undocumented citizens wish they could write, about what is gained and lost by living in the "shadows"...You may not know where he will be when you read this book, but his story will stay with you always." — Edwidge Danticat, award-winning author of Brother, I'm Dying
"[Dear America] couldn't be more timely and more necessary...a deeply personal and multilayered story told so gently and with such affection and humor." — Dave Eggers, New York Times bestselling author of What Is the What and The Monk of Mokha
"This important book could not be more timely- Jose Antonio Vargas has put a human face on one of the most defining and...
