If you grew up with a parent who came to America with almost nothing, these books will feel familiar. They’re stories about parents who carried hard histories, the children who tried to understand them, and the faith, food, and silence that filled the space in between. Here are well-loved novels and memoirs about immigrant parents and their children, plus the one I wrote about my own dad.
Why these stories hit so close to home
Children of immigrants often grow up between two worlds. There’s the parent who works harder than anyone you know but won’t talk much about the past. There are the rules that made sense “back home.” And there’s the slow realization, usually as adults, that our parents’ hardest years shaped ours too.
Books about immigrant parents and their children
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- The Joy Luck Club (Amy Tan) — Four Chinese immigrant mothers and their American-born daughters. Find it on Amazon
- The Namesake (Jhumpa Lahiri) — A Bengali family in America, and a son caught between two cultures. Find it on Amazon
- Brooklyn (Colm Tóibín) — A young Irish woman starts over in 1950s Brooklyn. Find it on Amazon
- Pachinko (Min Jin Lee) — Four generations of a Korean family making a life in Japan. Find it on Amazon
- Her Mother’s Hope (Francine Rivers) — A Christian family saga about an immigrant mother and the daughter who feels her hardness. Find it on Amazon
- Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt) — A memoir of poverty, a father who drank, and a boy’s long road back to America. Find it on Amazon
- Crying in H Mart (Michelle Zauner) — A memoir about a Korean-American daughter, her mother, and food. Find it on Amazon
- Hope Is My Anchor (Anna Broome) — My dad’s true story: a 12-year-old who runs away from a violent home, works his way across the oceans, and builds a life in America.
Why I wrote Hope Is My Anchor
My dad left home at twelve. I grew up knowing most of his story, but I knew it the way a little girl knows things. When I came back to those stories as an adult, and talked with my dad as a person instead of just as my dad, I was blown away by everything he had done and everything he had overcome. It changed so much in me.
As a kid, I was mad at him all the time for being so “Greek” and old-fashioned. I wished he was American and “normal,” like all the other kids’ dads. Now I look at him in amazement, and I can’t imagine those other dads being half as courageous as he was.
Hope Is My Anchor is built from those conversations. Readers who grew up with immigrant parents tell me again and again that they saw their own family in it. And then I wondered about the mother he left behind. That became A Light of Hope, Book Two of The Hope Series.
Questions readers ask
What’s a good novel for someone whose parent was an immigrant?
Start with The Joy Luck Club or The Namesake. If you want faith woven in, try Her Mother’s Hope or Hope Is My Anchor.
Are there books about forgiving an immigrant parent?
Yes. Hope Is My Anchor and Her Mother’s Hope both follow families working through old wounds toward forgiveness.
Is Hope Is My Anchor a true story?
Mostly, yes. It’s based on my dad’s real life. The major events happened, and I filled in conversations and a few details for the story.
Is there a book about the mother an immigrant left behind?
Yes. A Light of Hope, Book Two of The Hope Series, tells the story of Sapphira, the mother who stayed behind in Crete, and the quiet strength and faith that carried her family through war, loss, and hardship.