This Land Is Our Land, Suketu Mehta
This Land Is Our Land, Suketu Mehta
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This Land Is Our Land
An Immigrant's Manifesto

Author: Suketu Mehta

Narrator: Vikas Adam

Unabridged: 7 hr 50 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/04/2019


Synopsis

"Narrator Vikas Adam proves to be an excellent partner to author Suketu Mehta in this detailed and absorbing narrative...His facility with smooth pronunciation in a range of Indic and European languages and judiciously restrained use of sarcasm to relay irony combine to make a compelling book an even more compelling listen. The power of storytelling to convey truth is demonstrated here." — AudioFile Magazine

A timely argument for why the United States and the West would benefit from accepting more immigrants.

There are few subjects in American life that prompt more discussion and controversy than immigration. But do we really understand it? In This Land Is Our Land, the renowned author Suketu Mehta attacks the issue head-on. Drawing on his own experience as an Indian-born teenager growing up in New York City and on years of reporting around the world, Mehta subjects the worldwide anti-immigrant backlash to withering scrutiny. As he explains, the West is being destroyed not by immigrants but by the fear of immigrants.

Mehta juxtaposes the phony narratives of populist ideologues with the ordinary heroism of laborers, nannies, and others, from Dubai to Queens, and explains why more people are on the move today than ever before. As civil strife and climate change reshape large parts of the planet, it is little surprise that borders have become so porous. But Mehta also stresses the destructive legacies of colonialism and global inequality on large swaths of the world: When today’s immigrants are asked, “Why are you here?” they can justly respond, “We are here because you were there.” And now that they are here, as Mehta demonstrates, immigrants bring great benefits, enabling countries and communities to flourish.

Impassioned, rigorous, and richly stocked with memorable stories and characters, This Land Is Our Land is a timely and necessary intervention, and a literary polemic of the highest order.

About Suketu Mehta

Suketu Mehta is the author of Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and won the Kiriyama Prize and the Hutch Crossword Award. His work has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, Granta, Harper’s, Time, and GQ. He has won a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Whiting Writers’ Award, and an O. Henry Prize. He was born in Calcutta and lives in New York City, where he is an associate professor of journalism at New York University.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jade on June 07, 2019

This Land Is Our Land is the book on immigration that I wish I had had written. Suketu Mehta has no qualms about digging deep and laying it all out there for everyone to see: the truths, the stories, the cover ups, and also, the lies. As an immigrant myself, with an immigrant partner who comes from......more

Goodreads review by Venky on December 26, 2019

On the 30th of May, 2019, the President of the United States of America, Donald Trump threatened to apply a 5% tariff on all imports from Mexico. This threat which must have caused a significant amount of trepidation in Marcelo Ebard, Mexico’s Secretary for Foreign Affairs, comes as a direct follow......more

Goodreads review by S on January 12, 2021

I want to kiss the hands that wrote this book. These words. What is the first image that comes to your mind when you think of an immigrant? Ponder upon that thought. I am a Pakistani, a Muslim and a female migrant. There is nothing in this book that surprises me. It angers me. It swells my heart with p......more

Goodreads review by Nada on October 13, 2019

Everyone needs to read this book!......more

Goodreads review by Jeanne on August 08, 2021

During the last election, I fantasized about moving to Canada if necessary. I got as far as looking into it, but discovered that I would probably not earn enough points for a move to be realistic. This is context for my read of This Land Is Our Land, Suketu Mehta's analysis of immigration in the US a......more


Awards

  • NPR Best Book of the Year
  • Time Magazine Best Books of the Year