A 2019 NPR Staff Pick
“Written ‘in sorrow and anger,’ this is a brilliant and urgently necessary book, eloquently making the case against bigotry and for all of us migrants―what we are not, who we are, and why we deserve to be welcomed, not feared.” ―Salman Rushdie A timely argument for why the United States and the West would benefit from accepting more immigrants
There are few subjects in American life that prompt more discussion and controversy than immigration. But do we really understand it? In This Land Is Our Land, the renowned author Suketu Mehta attacks the issue head-on. Drawing on his own experience as an Indian-born teenager growing up in New York City and on years of reporting around the world, Mehta subjects the worldwide anti-immigrant backlash to withering scrutiny. As he explains, the West is being destroyed not by immigrants but by the fear of immigrants. Mehta juxtaposes the phony narratives of populist ideologues with the ordinary heroism of laborers, nannies, and others, from Dubai to Queens, and explains why more people are on the move today than ever before. As civil strife and climate change reshape large parts of the planet, it is little surprise that borders have become so porous. But Mehta also stresses the destructive legacies of colonialism and global inequality on large swaths of the world: When today’s immigrants are asked, “Why are you here?” they can justly respond, “We are here because you were there.” And now that they are here, as Mehta demonstrates, immigrants bring great benefits, enabling countries and communities to flourish. Impassioned, rigorous, and richly stocked with memorable stories and characters, This Land Is Our Land is a timely and necessary intervention, and a literary polemic of the highest order.

This Land Is Our Land: An Immigrant's Manifesto

History

Mehta, Suketu

Historical Study & Educational Resources

Farrar. Straus and Giroux

A native of Bombay, Suketu Mehta gives us an insider’s view of this stunning metropolis. He approaches the city from unexpected angles, taking us into the criminal underworld of rival Muslim and Hindu gangs, following the life of a bar dancer raised amid poverty and abuse, opening the door into the inner sanctums of Bollywood, and delving into the stories of the countless villagers who come in search of a better life and end up living on the sidewalks. As each individual story unfolds, Mehta also recounts his own efforts to make a home in Bombay after more than twenty years abroad. Candid, impassioned, funny, and heartrending, Maximum City is a revelation of an ancient and ever-changing world.

Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

Vintage

A brilliantly illuminating portrait of Bombay and its people a book as vast, diverse, and rich in experience, incident, and sensation as the city itself from an award-winning Indian-American fiction writer and journalist. A native of Bombay, Suketu Mehta gives us a true insider s view of this stunning city, bringing to his account a rare level of insight, detail, and intimacy. He approaches the city from unexpected angles taking us into the criminal underworld of rival Muslim and Hindu gangs who wrest control of the city s byzantine political and commercial systems . . . following the life of a bar dancer who chose the only life available to her after a childhood of poverty and abuse . . . opening the doors onto the fantastic, hierarchical inner sanctums of Bollywood . . . delving into the stories of the countless people who come from the villages in search of a better life and end up living on the sidewalks the essential saga of a great city endlessly played out. Through it all as each individual story unfolds we hear Mehta s own story: of the mixture of love, frustration, fascination, and intense identification he feels for and with Bombay, as he tries to find home again after twenty-one years abroad. And he makes clear that Bombay the world s largest city is a harbinger of the vast megalopolises that will redefine the very idea of the city in the near future. Candid, impassioned, funny, and heartrending, Maximum City is a revelation of an ancient and ever-changing world.

Asia

Headline/Review

A timely argument for why the United States and the West would benefit from accepting more immigrants
There are few subjects in American life that prompt more discussion and controversy than immigration. But do we really understand it? In This Land Is Our Land, the renowned author Suketu Mehta attacks the issue head-on. Drawing on his own experience as an Indian-born teenager growing up in New York City and on years of reporting around the world, Mehta subjects the worldwide anti-immigrant backlash to withering scrutiny. As he explains, the West is being destroyed not by immigrants but by the fear of immigrants. Mehta juxtaposes the phony narratives of populist ideologues with the ordinary heroism of laborers, nannies, and others, from Dubai to Queens, and explains why more people are on the move today than ever before. As civil strife and climate change reshape large parts of the planet, it is little surprise that borders have become so porous. But Mehta also stresses the destructive legacies of colonialism and global inequality on large swaths of the world: When today’s immigrants are asked, “Why are you here?” they can justly respond, “We are here because you were there.” And now that they are here, as Mehta demonstrates, immigrants bring great benefits, enabling countries and communities to flourish. Impassioned, rigorous, and richly stocked with memorable stories and characters, This Land Is Our Land is a timely and necessary intervention, and a literary polemic of the highest order.

This Land Is Our Land

Picador Paper

An impassioned defence of global immigration from the acclaimed author of Maximum City.\nDrawing on his family’s own experience emigrating from India to Britain and America, and years of reporting around the world, Suketu Mehta subjects the worldwide anti-immigrant backlash to withering scrutiny. The West, he argues, is being destroyed not by immigrants but by the fear of immigrants. He juxtaposes the phony narratives of populist ideologues with the ordinary heroism of labourers, nannies and others, from Dubai to New York, and explains why more people are on the move today than ever before. As civil strife and climate change reshape large parts of the planet, it is little surprise that borders have become so porous.\nThis Land is Our Land also stresses the destructive legacies of colonialism and global inequality on large swathes of the world. When today’s immigrants are asked, ‘Why are you here?’, they can justly respond, ‘We are here because you were there.’ And now that they are here, as Mehta demonstrates, immigrants bring great benefits, enabling countries and communities to flourish.\nImpassioned, rigorous, and richly stocked with memorable stories and characters, This Land Is Our Land is a timely and necessary intervention, and literary polemic of the highest order.

This Land Is Our Land: An Immigrant’s Manifesto

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

JONATHAN CAPE.

In an increasingly globalized cultural landscape, artists are often asked to represent their "home" country. But what if identifying home is a complex matter? The Queens Museum of Art organized the exhibition Generation 1.5 with this sort of ambiguity of origin in mind. With a title taking its name from the Korean-American phrase describing people who moved to a new country between the ages of 12 and 18, Generation 1.5 featured eight artists who made this transition--Ellen Harvey, Pablo Helguera, Emily Jacir, Lee Mingwei, Shirin Neshat, Seher Shah, Rirkrit Tiravanija and Nari Ward. This volume examines Generation 1.5 and the featured artists through interviews and essays that address cultural representation, cosmopolitanism, personal expression, alienation, the pain of transition, immigration, exile, and the complexity and limitations of identity politics. With essays and interviews by Man Booker Prize winner Kiran Desai, Pulitzer Prize finalist Suketu Mehta plus noted sociologists, artists, writers and curators.

Generation 1.5

Arts & Photography

Smith, Valerie

Finkelpearl, Tom

Harvey, Matthea

Balaghi, Shiva

DESAI, KIRAN

Kokache, Moukhtar

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

Queens Museum of Art

BOMBAY MAXIMUM CITY

Literature & Fiction

Essays & Correspondence

Buchet/Chastel

Bombay: Maximum City

Poetry

Suhrkamp Verlag AG

Inspired by contemporary Indian authors, Betsy Karel went to Bombay seeking visual equivalents for the humanity, humor, mystery and psychological energy of their stories. Unlike many photographers drawn to the cacophony of urban India, she focuses, often in an intensely personal way, on individuals going about their everyday street lives. She waits patiently in the bustle of Bombay, as individuals transform public spaces into private places, forging islands of intimacy. She captures a poignant lyricism in the familiar, and the true jadoo (magic) of the city. Karel, born in New York City, now lives in Washington, DC. She worked as an award-winning photojournalist in the 1970's and early 80's. Here she collaborates with acclaimed writers Ardashir Vakil and Suketu Mehta, who have written companion pieces.

Betsy Karel: Bombay Jadoo

Vakil, Ardashir

Individual Artists

Steidl

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Books by Mehta, Suketu