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A Beginner’s Guide To America by Roya Hakakian

This perfectly timed book gives us a portrait of what the new immigrant experience in America is really like. Written as a “guide” for the newly arrived, and providing “practical information and advice,” Roya Hakakian, an immigrant herself, reveals what those who settle here love about the country, what they miss about their homes, the cruelty of some Americans, and the unceasing generosity of others. She captures the texture of life in a new place in all its complexity, laying bare both its beauty and its darkness as she discusses race, sex, love, death, consumerism, and her experience of being from a country far from friends with the United States. Her tenderly perceptive and surprisingly humorous account invites native-born Americans to see themselves as they appear to others, making it possible for them to rediscover their many American gifts through the perspective of the outsider. In shattering myths and embracing painful contradictions that are unique to this place, A Beginner’s Guide to America is Hakakian’s candid love letter to America. Author will be here in person. Copies of book for sale at the Temple.