Helen Thorpe

In Finding Motherland, acclaimed nonfiction author Helen Thorpe shares seven essays she has written on the related themes of family, food, and migration. She takes us to the dairy farm in Ireland where her mother grew up, and depicts how Ireland is modernizing with surprising consequences. She describes her family's decision to immigrate to the United States and how, that reshaped her Irish-born parents. She shows us how the experience of becoming...

Just Like Us is the story of four high school students whose parents entered this country illegally from Mexico. All four of the girls have grown up in the United States, all four want to live the American dream, only two have documents. As the girls attempt to make it into college, they discover that only the legal pair see a clear path forward. A coming-of-age story about girlhood,friendship, as well as the resilience required to transcend poverty,...