Showing results for "Making Americans" in Literature & Fiction

Jacob Riis, a renowned reporter and documentary photographer, offers a poignant glimpse into his life in New York City. Through his autobiography, he vividly recounts his tumultuous early years and relentless pursuit of love in Denmark, followed by his transformative journey as a struggling immigrant in the United States. His experiences as a journalist in the bustling, impoverished immigrant neighborhoods of lower Manhattan ignited his fervor for social reform. Riis poignantly asserts in his opening note, “To those who have been asking if they are made-up stories, let me say here that ...

The locals in the southern Italian town where he lives call him Signor Farfalla - Mr. Butterfly - for he is a discreet gentleman who paints rare butterflies. His life is inconspicuous: mornings are spent brushing at a canvas, afternoons idling in the cafés, and evenings talking with his friend, the town priest, over a glass of brandy. Yet there are other sides to this gentleman’s life.... Part thriller, part character study, part drama of deceit and self-betrayal, The American shows Martin Booth at the very height of his powers.

""Like the best of its predecessors, Making Money balances satire, knockabout farce and close observation of human — and non-human — foibles with impressive dexterity and deceptive ease. The result is another ingenious entertainment from the preeminent comic fantasist of our time...

The sweat-shop was my liberty cradle... My first university, says Marcus Eli Ravage (1884-1965), a Romanian immigrant who changed the course of his life through education. By night, he attended lectures and theatre in New York; by day, he diligently sewed sleeves into shirts in a ghetto shop. Ravages 1917 autobiography narrates his journey from being an alien to becoming an American. At 16, he emigrated from Romania and worked for several years to save enough money to attend the University of Missouri, a culture shock at first. However, he eventually embraced the bigger and freer world beyond ...

Nahima had to grow up hard to survive in the streets of Tampa, and she has no problem holding her own. Because of who her family is, Nahima is thrown into the street life with no real choice. She knows what to expect, but you know what they say: when we make plans, God laughs.

“Outlandish fun. . . . Making Money balances satire, knockabout farce and close observation of human—and non-human—foibles with impressive dexterity and deceptive ease. The result is another ingenious entertainment from the preeminent comic fantasist of our time.”—Washington Post The...

""An intricate exploration of family and home, of mother and child, of friends, of women and written with both precision and style.""—Weike Wang, author of Chemistry From a talented, powerful new voice in fiction comes a stunning novel about the intersection of three lives coming to grips with...