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Book Recommendations

Stay connected with Exodus during this time of social distancing by reading about the refugee and immigrant experience. We have compiled a list of some of our favorite books for adults and children.

Books for Adults

A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea: One Refugee’s Incredible Story of Love, Loss, and Survival by Melissa Fleming                

A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys 

Brothers of the Gun – A Memoir of the Syrian War by Marwan Hisham 

Butterfly: From Refugee to Olympian by Yusra Mardini 

City of Thorns by Ben Rawlence 

Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives by Viet Thanh Nguyen 

Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario 

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

Homes: A Refugee Story by Abu Bakr al Rabeeah    

Love Thy Neighbor – A Muslim Doctor’s Struggle for Home in Rural America by Ayaz Virji 

Once We Were Strangers by Shawn Smucker

Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb 

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon 

The Bee Keeper of Aleppo: A Novel by Christy Lefteri

The Boat People by Sharon Bala 

The Fox Hunt:  A Refugee’s Memoir of coming to America by Mohammed Al Samawi 

The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clemantine Wamariya 

The Good Immigrant: 26 Writers Reflect on America by Nikesh Shukla 

The Monk of Mokha by Dave Eggers 

The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen  

To Stop a Warlord by Shannon Sedgwick Davis 

We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled: Voices from Syria by Wendy Pearlman 

What is the What by Dave Eggers


Graphic Novels 

Ilegal by Eoin Colfer 

The Best We Could Do: An Illustrated Memoir by Thi Bui 

The Unwanted: Stories of the Syrian Refugees by Don Brown 

Undocumented:  A Worker’s Fight by Duncan Tonatiuh 

Zenobia By Morten Durr 

When Stars are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed (Published April 14, 2020)


Books for Young Adults 

A Land of Permanent Goodbyes by Atia Abawi  

A Long Walk to Water: Based on a True Story by Linda Sue Park 

Escape from Aleppo by N. H. Senzai 

How Dare the Sun Rise: Memoirs of a War Child by Sandra Uwiringiyimana 

In the Sea There are Crocodiles by Fabio Geda 

Nowhere Boy by Katherine Marsh 

Outcasts United: An American Town, a Refugee Team, and One Woman’s Quest to Make a Difference by Warren St. John 

Refugee by Alan Gratz 

The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani 

The Red Pencil by Andrea Davis Pinkney 

We Are Displaced: My Journey and Stories from Refugee Girls Around the World by Malala Yousafzai    


Books for Children 

Four Feet, Two Sandals by Karen Williams and Khadra Mohammed

My Two Blankets by Irena Kobald

Sea Prayer by Khaled Hosseini 

The Journey by Francesca Sanna

I’m New Here by Anne Sibley O’Brien