This Is Not Your Country: Stories

This is Not Your Country by Amin Ahmad is evocative and trembling, viscerally accented by such genuine characters, so real in emotion that you could almost reach out and touch their skin or hold their hand.

What Ahmad captures so precisely is the heartbreak a Brown child has upon realizing acceptance is not easily given, whether from parent, lover, friend, or country. It is with the empathy of knowing these experiences that Ahmad can detail such conflict and longing. What he sees and captures in these stories is so nuanced and particular to the immigrant and children of immigrants experience that any who may relate will pause in the bittersweet relish of being seen and being known.

The stories explore different layers of being an immigrant, such as generational trauma and the desperation of wanting to belong. There is a story for a person of any age or gender, as they range from the perspectives of a lonely husband, a woman torn, a naive child, etc. This collection speaks truth to the Brown immigrant experience, and it is with this raw truth that the beauty and richness of these lives are illuminated.