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Summary
Summary
Here We Are is a heart-wrenching memoir about an immigrant family's American Dream, the justice system that took it away, and the daughter who fought to get it back, from NPR correspondent Aarti Namdev Shahani.
The Shahanis came to Queens--from India, by way of Casablanca--in the 1980s. They were undocumented for a few unsteady years and then, with the arrival of their green cards, they thought they'd made it. This is the story of how they did, and didn't; the unforeseen obstacles that propelled them into years of disillusionment and heartbreak; and the strength of a family determined to stay together.
Here We Are: American Dreams, American Nightmares follows the lives of Aarti, the precocious scholarship kid at one of Manhattan's most elite prep schools, and her dad, the shopkeeper who mistakenly sells watches and calculators to the notorious Cali drug cartel. Together, the two represent the extremes that coexist in our country, even within a single family, and a truth about immigrants that gets lost in the headlines. It isn't a matter of good or evil; it's complicated.
Ultimately, Here We Are is a coming-of-age story, a love letter from an outspoken modern daughter to her soft-spoken Old World father. She never expected they'd become best friends.
Author Notes
Aarti Namdev Shahani is the author of memoir Here We Are: American Dreams, American Nightmares . She is a correspondent for NPR based in Silicon Valley, covering the largest companies on earth. Her reporting has received awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, a regional Edward R. Murrow Award, and an Investigative Reporters & Editors Award. Before journalism, Shahani was a community organizer in New York City, helping prisoners and families facing deportation. Her activism was honored by the Union Square Awards and Legal Aid Society. She received a Master's in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, with generous support from the university and the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans. She completed her bachelor's degree in anthropology at the University of Chicago. She was among the youngest recipients of the Charles H. Revson Fellowship at Columbia University and is an alumna of A Better Chance, Inc. Shahani grew up in Flushing, Queens--in one of the most diverse zip codes in the country--and believes every American should visit her hometown to understand what makes America great.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this tragedy-tinged debut memoir, NPR technology correspondent Shahani discusses her father's 1996 arrest for selling electronics to the Cali cartel of Colombia and the ways in which these events shaped Shahani's life. Shahani's family immigrated from India to New York City in 1981, where her father opened a wholesale electronics store and began selling such items as calculators and watches to customers who he later learned were cartel members. His arrest set in motion a legal nightmare that sent the author on a mission to prevent her father, who wasn't a U.S. citizen, from being deported and to help other families in similar predicaments. Shahani discovers years after her father accepted a plea bargain and served eight months at Rikers Island that he may not have had to serve time at all had his lawyer worked harder to show that the case was thin. In a conversational tone, the book exposes the ugliness of the criminal justice system, which pressures defendants to take plea bargains. The author discusses becoming a journalist and building the kind of successful career her father never had and ends with a letter to her father, who eventually became a U.S. citizen and "whose ups and down taught me how the world really works." This timely, bittersweet immigration story will resonate powerfully with readers. (Oct.)
Kirkus Review
A distinguished NPR journalist's account of how the concept of the American dream gave her the chance to succeed while simultaneously destroying her immigrant family.Shahani's parents met as Indian Partition refugees in Morocco. In 1981, they came to America and settled in a multiethnic Queens neighborhood, "one of the most diverse tracts of land on the planet." There, her family's "most aggressive war" was not with members of other cultural "tribes" but with vermin in their apartment. Optimistic that they would soon succeed, they experienced their first disappointment when the author's father, a "big brain" man, had to settle for manual labor. He left the family to work with brothers in Dubai, returning only when Shahani's mother became disabled after a freak accident. Their fortunes changed soon after her father collected money from relatives and opened an electronics store. His hard work allowed them to move into a house in New Jersey and live a comfortable middle-class life. In the meantime, Shahani became "Nerd Girl," winning a scholarship to the prestigious Brearley School in Manhattan. Her connections eventually landed her a well-paying summer job that, unlike those her father had taken when he first arrived in America, "came with a desk, a computera view," and a good wage. Everything changed when the author was in 12th grade. Her father had been arrested and sent to prison for mistakenly selling merchandise to a drug cartel. As her father struggled, Shahani's grades dropped. Though she found a place at the University of Chicago, her faith in both the American dream and the justice system was shattered. Becoming an active seeker of social justice, the author spent the next 15 years using her connections and journalistic savvy to help exonerate her father. Barely escaping deportation, he finally became an American citizen only to die shortly afterward. As it chronicles immigrant tragedy and triumph, this provocative book also reveals the dark underside of the American judicial system and the many pitfalls for people of color within a landscape of white privilege.A candid and moving memoir. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
NPR correspondent Shahani and her family arrived in Queens in the 1980s from India. Her parents had left an abusive family situation behind, and planned to start over in New York with their three children. Though both parents spoke multiple languages and had been successful in India, they struggled to support the family after settling in the U.S. After a few false starts, Shahani's father opened an electronics store with his brother. But suddenly, the family's American Dream shattered: Shahani's father and uncle were arrested for selling goods to members of a drug cartel. Despite the flimsy case against them, their lawyer advised the two men to accept a plea bargain and serve time in Rikers Island. Shahani's memoir chronicles the long-term effects of the arrest and imprisonment which the judge later explained could have been easily avoided on the family's life for decades after. Shahani balances an extremely personal story with a journalistic attention to detail. Here We Are is an American story of immigration, familial loyalty, and strength in the face of injustice.--Laura Chanoux Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
What does it really mean to be American? National Public Radio journalist Shahani begins this memoir with her father's itinerant lifestyle after political upheaval in his native India and eventual immigration with Shahani's mother and siblings to Flushing, NY, after a brief time in Morroco. Switching from public schools to earning a scholarship to attend an elite private school, Shahani was conquering the academic world. Meanwhile, her father's world was crumbling, and he was arrested for inadvertently selling electronics to the Cali drug cartel. Shahani's own research into the case calls the accusations into serious question; she describes how her father's imprisonment and threat of deportation greatly shaped her life and that of her siblings. Throwing herself into activism and her father's case, Shahani grappled with the complex U.S. immigration system before moving to tech journalism for the distance from what felt like a losing battle. It's clear that her passion for justice shines through. VERDICT This thought-provoking and thoroughly engrossing memoir offers the story of Shahani's experience, as well as those of other families who, though they did not find the American Dream, nevertheless found home. [See Prepub Alert, 4/1/19.]--Stacy Shaw, Denver
Table of Contents
| Prologue | p. 1 |
| Act 1 Backstay | p. 9 |
| Act 2 We Made It | p. 51 |
| Act 3 Breaking at the Seams | p. 79 |
| Intermission: Reporting the Case | p. 115 |
| Act 4 Stranger Things | p. 131 |
| Act 5 Stretch Goal | p. 177 |
| Act 6 Leaving and Finding Home | p. 209 |
| Epilogue: Dear Dad | p. 239 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 243 |
