The Good Immigrant by Nikesh Shukla, Chimene Suleyman

The Good Immigrant (Pol003000, HACHETTE A)

by Nikesh Shukla and Chimene Suleyman

First published in 2016, The Good Immigrant has since been hailed as a modern classic and credited with reshaping the discussion about race in contemporary Britain. It brings together a stellar cast of the country’s most exciting voices to reflect on why immigrants come to the UK, why they stay and what it means to be ‘other’ in a place that doesn’t seem to want you, doesn’t truly accept you – however many generations you’ve been here – but still needs you for its diversity monitoring forms.
This 5th anniversary edition, featuring a new preface by editor Nikesh Shukla, shows that the pieces collected here are as poignant, challenging, angry, humorous, heartbreaking and important as ever.

Reviewed by Joséphine on

5 of 5 stars

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Initial thoughts: Teetering between 4.5 and 5 stars. This is an excellent book containing a lot of insight into the lives of immigrants originating from many different countries. The reason I'm not entirely bent on 5 stars is that the essayists are by and large working in the media and/or entertainment industry. Nikesh Shukla does admit in his preface that the contributors generally know each other. With a general title referring to the immigrant, I expected a more cohesive narrative representing voices from more varied samples of British immigrants. Then again, 21 is a small sample size, so I might have expected too much in terms of representation. That being said, I thought the essays were all thought-provoking and most importantly, honest.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 13 November, 2016: Finished reading
  • 13 November, 2016: Reviewed