A wry, poetic, heartbreaking account of a child's life as a Chinese immigrant in New York City in the 1990s. The book sits comfortably in the canon of similar memoirs but stood out for the literally gut-wrenching descriptions of hunger and loneliness. Anyone who takes something so basic as meals for granted cannot possibly read this book without feeling, to their very core, how incredibly lucky they are.

The author writes of her experience as a young girl leaving behind her comfortable life in China to emigrate, illegally, with her parents to the “beautiful country.”
For the first time in her life, Qian experiences true hunger, loneliness and fear, as she constantly watches over her shoulder and waits to be found out and deported.
This book was a captivating account of a small family doing their best to realize the American Dream in NYC’s Chinatown but constantly coming up short. Wang’s writing is both stark and eloquent, and her anecdotes describing life as an insignificant foreigner are universally human and completely heartrending.
Thanks to #netgalley and #doubledaybooks for this ARC of #beautifulcountry in exchange for an honest review.

Gorgeous. This is a remarkable debut memoir that is beautifully written. Mei Guo is the Chinese name for the USA which translates to “beautiful country”. Recently I have read a few memoirs and novels describing the experience of Chinese immigrants to the United States during the time of the “Cultural Revolution” - the degradation and struggle and perseverance of this community of survivors is astounding. The writing of this book was magnificent - I closed the book and wanted more - Hopefully the author will do just that and continue writing. Heartfelt thanks to Doubleday for gifting me this beauty. I’m so grateful.

Affecting, inspiring, and powerful - Qian Julie Wang has written one of the most compelling memoirs I’ve ever read. She shares what it was like for she and her parents to leave a stable and relatively comfortable life in Shijiazhuang, China (her parents were both professors) and to live in hiding and deprivation as undocumented immigrants in New York.

Having arrived in the US when she was only 7-years old, she details the extreme poverty, humiliations, perpetual fear of being found out and deported, self-shrinking, family pressures and suffering they endured. She also describes the small joys, community care, and determination that sustained them during that period.

The fact that Wang taught herself English by reading children’s books, went on to graduate Yale Law School, and became a managing partner at her own firm as well as a published author serves as an inspiration to undocumented immigrants and everyone else. It’s also a reminder to practice compassion and empathy in our daily lives; we may never know what others are battling.

I wish every good thing for ‘Beautiful Country’ and Qian Julie Wang, and I admire the courage and vulnerability it took for her to process and share these parts of her life. Thank you to her, Doubleday/Penguin Random House LLC, and NetGalley for the opportunity to review an advanced reader copy before it’s release next month (9/7/21).

"Beautiful Country", a memoir by Qian Julie Wang was a heartbreaking tale of immigration from China to NYC. The story, eloquently told through the eyes of young Qian, was magnificent, eye opening, hopeful yet very sad. The stress, fear, uncertainty, poverty, and difficult jobs and existence conveyed, along with the toll on the parents' marriage and confidence of the persons in this family was breathtaking. Thank you NetGalley, the author and publisher for the early copy for review. All opinions are my own.

Thanks to Netgalley and DoubleDay Books: Wang has crafted a powerful and nuanced memoir. Brought from China at age 7 by her educated parents, in search of opportunities, Wang depicts the experience of illegal Chinese immigrants in the 1990's in NYC with the myriad humiliations, deprivations, targeted micro and macro aggressions and pervasive fear. Despite their education and work ethic, the family was desperately poor. She writes deftly and from the perspective of the child she was. She loves her parents powerfully--"Ba Ba and Ma Ma", but is very aware of the trauma they all suffered and inflicted upon each other. Wang achieves the American Dream, but not without a significant price and unnecessary suffering. An exceptional memoir.

This is one of those books that everyone should read. Moving, eye-opening, informative, and a beautiful picture of the resilience of the human spirit. Highly recommend.

Thank you to Doubleday and NetGalley for a complimentary copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Reading Qian Julie Wang’s memoir Beautiful Country made me appreciate my siblings even more than I already do. It wasn’t until I read this book that I realized just how much having a sibling by my side made the whole immigration process easier - I was never alone, not when the kids spat on me for “speaking a different language”, or when I had to walk into a different classroom, yet again, without understanding a word anyone was saying around me. During all of the adaptation to another country/people/language/culture, the trying to fit in, and never quite making it parts, I always had someone by my side who understood what I was going through, and why we just shut up and endured rather than said anything, but how we also resisted in our own way. Anyway, I absolutely loved reading Qian Julie Wang’s work, and while reading it my heart hurt thinking about how alone she was, navigating undocumented immigrant life in the US. And while my situation was a lot different, and a lot easier, it would have been so much harder if I hadn’t had my sister by my side.

Qian arrived in the US as a 7 year old in 1994, joining her father who had already been here for a while. They moved into a shared apartment, and while her parents worked in sweatshops and other hard, but underpaid work, Qian started school. No one at school speaks Mandarin properly, and no one really helps her learn English so she takes refuge in the library, first the school one, then the public one, and teaches herself how to communicate in English. I related to this so much, as this is also how I learnt Dutch and then French in ways that no teacher or school could ever teach me. Libraries will always, always have a special place in my heart. Qian’s family live in poverty, and Qian is often left to figure things out alone (free school meals, subway, school life in general), and her memories of hunger break my heart, because it is not something that any child should feel, and because it is still to this day something that many children endure in this country. As the months and then the years go by, Qian finds herself playing different roles for her parents, watching their relationship deteriorate under the stress of immigrant life in the US, while trying to figure out what she wants from her life, despite the fact that no one believes she will go anywhere.

There is a lot of darkness in this memoir, but Qian’s life is not darkness (if that makes sense?) - it is not an easy read, but it is a must read. I have my own personal immigration stories, and I have read many other immigration stories, but Qian’s is the first story of a child immigrating to the US from China that I have ever read, and I am very grateful for everything I have learned by reading her story. Qian’s writing is completely honest, and this honesty allows us to see all layers of her story, and understand many of her decisions. As an adult my first reaction was shock when I realized that she was going to hide the hand that she hurt in a fall, but then I remembered the amount of times I did something similar, to avoid bringing attention to myself, to avoid having to navigate finding a doctor or a dentist by myself, to avoid having to do something I was too young to do alone, and I suddenly saw myself there, beside her. People are quick to judge immigrants and certain decisions we make as children and adults, but until you have lived it yourself, you really have no idea.

Thank you Qian for your beautiful and heartbreaking memoir - I hope many, many, many people read it.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

If you ever want to feel EXTRA grateful for what you have, this book might be perfect for you.

Imagine a seven-year-old girl in China who’s living a happy, simple life with friends and family who look and live like her. Now two years after her father fled China for America, or ‘Mei Guo’ - ‘the beautiful country’, she and her mother are leaving the only home they’ve ever known to join him there. Imagine the culture shock: people of all different colors, your senses overwhelmed by the new and unknown, and embedded into this bewildering experience is FEAR. You live with constant, daily fear of being discovered and sent back if someone doesn’t believe the cover story that your father has drilled into you that you were born in America and have always lived here.

Qian Julie Wang has written an eye-opening debut memoir told through the lens of her youth, that is an incredible and often heartbreaking view of her life growing up as an illegal immigrant in New York City. Her proud parents were reduced from educated, capable professionals in China, to people living in NYC’s shadows - her mother finding work in a sweatshop, among other menial jobs, and her father doing laundry work for barely livable wages. They had to rely on others in their situation or those willing to turn a blind eye, but they could never truly live openly and freely.

Wang’s account of her formative years is straight-up traumatic - punctuated by racist treatment from adults and peers alike, an initial complete lack of English skills, daily unrelenting hunger and the stigma of suffocating poverty, life in a tiny share house apartment with no privacy, and her parents’ increasingly contentious marriage. As an only child with few opportunities for real friendship, her relationship with her parents, Baba and Mama, is especially difficult to read about since they were often in an emotional fog or occasionally turned their frustrations on her. You feel her loneliness and the struggle with how to perceive these people who simultaneously love her and hurt her.

It’s not an easy read and my only downside is just the gloom inherent in a story like this, but the sun did emerge from the clouds, so to speak. It was uplifting to watch Qian teach herself English through watching PBS shows and reading library books, and to see her use her education to eventually overcome her dismal circumstances. I had a whole new appreciation for the book’s title by the end.

A beautiful debut!

★★★★ ½ (rounded to 4)

I can not recommend this book enough! I read Beautiful Country in one day. This book is one of best books of 2021.. I appreciate net gallery and selected publishers for this early copy

In Beautiful Country, a young immigrant from China offers a long unflinching gaze at the hardships her family faces when they arrive in the United States: Lives of deprivation and poverty, fear, struggle, and discrimination. Qian Julie Wang’s story is representative of so many families who find their professions and former ways of life completely upended in a new land where language is only one of many profound barriers. An especially eye opening read for those with the privilege of citizenship and economic stability. For the Wangs and other newcomers, sustenance in any form is meager in this country that shows itself to be anything but beautiful. Thankfully Qian finds her way forward through books. The writing is rich, and the hope of a better tomorrow is gradually realized.

Is Beautiful Country really a beautiful country? Wang tells about her early days in the US, comparing her life back in China to her days in the US, explaining hardships that she and her parents faced, how they went from hero to zero when they made the move, how different perspectives in the family can be very divisive. So I'm asking again then: is Beautiful Country really a beautiful country as others claim?

In a country where everyone was an immigrant at some point, it is disturbing to see the treatment people are getting. And no, treatment doesn't differ if you are documented. Your qualifications mean nothing unless you earned them in that country. You are nothing but another brick in the wall around capitalism. When you read this memoir, you are going to get first hand experience of how such treatment can reshape a child's personality and mentality. And what you will find is disturbing.

If you like to read about immigrant stories and DACA kids, you will like this book. I took my time to get into it, but it was a very powerful description of life that could have been different.

Written from the memories of Qian who, at the tender age of seven, immigrates with her parents from China to NYC. Her story covers the time period of about 5 years. Moving to a new neighborhood is challenge enough, but moving to a new country where you don’t speak the language or know the customs makes adapting even more difficult. Add to that her parents continued bickering, their fear of deportation, and their own prejudices, finally, Qian finds solace in books. She teaches herself the language and begins to help her parents.
Qian chronicles those years with brutal honesty. She helps us understand the struggles of an educated immigrant family who have difficultly finding their place in the NYC area. You are a product of your environment and your heredity. Qian is a survivor.
Thank you #netgalley and #doubledaybooks for an advanced copy of #beautifulcountry.

This is a beautifully written memoir as told from the viewpoint of Qian Qian who came to New York from China on 7/29/1994 when she was 7 years old. Qian's father had come to the US before to get a job and housing so they could join him. Once Qian and her mother get to New York, even though Qian's parents were professionals, they could not get jobs because they were undocumented so they had to resort to working doing various jobs in sweatshops. Qian started 1st grade and had a rough time trying to fit in even though a lot of the other children were immigrants. The other Chinese children and teacher did not all speak the same dialect so Qian could not understand them, they could not understand her and she spoke no English. She basically taught herself how to speak English by watching cartoons on PBS and reading books. Qian has a hard time in school making friends and keeping them because she does not have nice clothes, got free lunches and sometimes she was rude to everyone. Lots of things happen to Qian and her parents as she continues her education while having to look after her mother. I will let you read and enjoy this book so you can find out what happens.

Thank you NetGalley and Doubleday for the ARC of this fantastic memoir that I had a hard time putting down.

I stayed up late finishing this book and then I couldn't go to sleep! What an eye opener. In all of my profound naevite (cluelessness really!) I have always assumed that once an immigrant landed on our welcoming (!?) shores, their lives would be so much better than what they were leaving behind. Not necessarily so, especially if they are undocumented or overstay their visa. There is so much I never thought of.
Obtaining decent housing is made all the more difficult if one doesn't have the legal paperwork to get a job commensurate with their education. By working only menial jobs which allows the employers to avoid decent pay ( who wants to risk deportation by complaining about unfair labor practices?), a lifestyle of extreme poverty is almost guaranteed. Healthcare is a rarely obtainable luxury, since that may draw unwanted attention to them. Looking over their shoulders for the uniformed officials eager to send them back is their constant mindset.
Had all of this been presented by a less talented writer, I'm not sure I would have been able to finish reading it. But having it be told by her younger self, with all of the honesty and simplicity of a child just wanting to understand, we get to view this heartache through her lens. And while your heart does ache for her, knowing the normal childhood longings she has will never be fulfilled, her spirit of hope keeps her planning and working towards her dreams.
"We spent those years shrouded in darkness while wrestling with hope and dignity." She speaks so eloquently of the "forgotten children, past and present, who grew up cloaked in fear and desolation, and the belief that their very existence is wrong, their very being illegal." Her dream as she matured, is that "...being recognized as human requires no luck---when it is a right, not a privilege." and.... every one of us will have no reason to fear stepping out of the shadows."
And the choir said, "Amen!"

Thank you to the author, publisher and Net Galley for providing a free ebook copy of this title in exchange for my review.

This is a YA memoir about a Chinese immigrant's experience growing up in New York. The writing isn't always world building, but it feels real and honest and the author tells her story well. The inclusion of some Chinese phrases and conversations without English translation makes it tough to read - I've noticed similar situations to other titles published recently. I am happy to see other languages in books, but I would also like to know what is being said.

Memoir's are always difficult for me to rate. If this is someone's memory, their story, how can you rate that? If they feel emotional when writing so the wording isn't just perfect, who am I to rate that? I am grateful the author is willing and able to share her story with us.

In Beautiful Country, Wang artfully captures what life was like for an undocumented immigrant, not only from her perspective but from that of her parents as well. They have left everything behind for the dream of living in ‘the beautiful country.’ But they have landed in NYC and are struggling from the astronomical cost of living. Her parents are working several factory jobs and have trouble making ends meet.

Qian fought daily battles with hunger, bullying, struggling to make her clothes last a year, wanting to fit in with her peers, and the daily fear of being found out. Through her writing, her voracious love of reading shines through. Beautiful Country is a well-written memoir that encapsulates not just Qian’s story but so many others like her and her family—nicely done. Thank you, Doubleday Books, for sending this along.

This is an unforgettable, raw, moving memoir about undocumented immigrants. In China, Qian's parents were educated professionals. But, after coming illegally to America to escape Chinese oppression, they are forced into the under belly of undocumented immigrants in 1980s New York City. The amazing story tells the story of a young girl and her parents as they navigate the underworld of undocumented immigrants. Unforgettable read that was hard to put down. highly recommend- especially for book clubs.

First off, I cannot imagine how difficult it must have been for Qian Julie Wang to go through and process all that was endured by her and her family in the five years that they moved to and lived in "Mei Guo," the United States, as undocumented immigrants in the very depths of New York City. This is a story of a world of hardship viewed through the eyes of a child who is forever branded by her experience, but who handled it with a sense of courage, determination, and a willingness to look onward for hope.

I was in disbelief at the conditions of Qian's early life in the United States, despite her family being well-educated and in a great position back in their hometown. Immigration is incredibly difficult; from having to navigate an entirely new country, language, and social systems, to overcoming hurdle after barrier of inequity, prejudice, and discrimination. Qian was able to articulate every feeling she encountered, every interaction that forever shaped her, even if it was something she was not able to understand at the time. It's heartbreaking when people make decisions that they believe will better their circumstances but don't have all of the information.

This book is more so required reading than it is anything else, in all honesty. Despite Qian's and her family's very difficult start, their strength, perseverance, and resilience pulled them through to the end, and Qian fought her way up through Yale Law School. This is a story of trying to exist in a world that is not made for you and doing it anyway. It's definitely not a story I'll forget anytime soon.

A voice that has been missing from the undocumented immigrant experience is finally here in the new memoir Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang. When we hear about Dreamers, the focus is usually on their present day life, but rarely do we hear what life was like when they were very young and newly arrived in America. In her debut work, Wang takes us back to her childhood when she first arrived in the United States where it was anything but the mythical Beautiful Country that she had heard of in China. Instead her new home was a precarious one because from the moment she landed in New York City, she was taught not to trust anyone for fear of deportation. Written in the voice of her seven-year-old self, Wang shares her immigration experience as she tried to make America her home while living a life cloaked in secrecy and anxiety. This book took my emotions on a rollercoaster ride. I was angered that such a small child had to work in a sweatshop. Saddened that she was intimately familiar with hunger as her family tried to survive on a $20 a week food budget. Proud of her academic accomplishments and disappointed she had to do it alone. Buoyed by her resilience. Delighted by her charm and ingenuity. Hurt that she felt she had to be the emotional strength of the family. Shame that a child would have to even experience any of this at all. What made Wang’s memoir even more heart-wrenching for me was that I saw it through the innocent eyes of a child rather than through the mature retrospection of an adult who because of hindsight understands the gravity and complexities of the past. Beautiful Country is definitely a memoir that I suggest those who want to understand the challenges immigrant children face, especially those undocumented, read. You will definitely be enlightened.

Thank you to #NetGalley and Doubleday Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.