One part Mari Andrew, one part Marjane Satrapi, I Was Their American Dream- A Graphic Memoir is a triumphant tale of self-discovery, a celebration of a family's rich heritage, and a love letter to American immigrant freedom. Malaka Gharib's illustrations, infused with teenage antics and earnest questions about identity and culture, provide thoughtful insight into the lives of modern immigrants and the generation of millennial children they raised
MALAKA GHARIB is an artist, journalist, and writer based in Washington, D.C. She is the founder of The Runcible Spoon, a food zine, and the co-founder of the D.C. Art Book Fair. She lives in a row house with her husband Darren and her 9-year-old rice cooker.
“Malaka Gharib’s graphic memoir I Was Their American
Dream tells the story of her experience as a first-generation
American of Filipino and Egyptian descent. Gharib’s
red-white-and-blue graphic palette serves as the perfect frame for
her journey as she navigates questions of belonging, loyalty, and
identity with heartwarming humor and critical wit.”—Kenyon
Review
“A heartwarming tribute to immigrant families and their descendants
trying to live the American dream.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Malaka Gharib tells the origin story of a person, somebody with
hopes and fears and dreams. . . . Malaka looks to the future, to
the expansive family that she has built and inherited, across
continents and cultures. This memoir is as much a tribute to them
as is her own coming of age story.”—Jeff Daughterty, BookTrib
“With a sincere approach, this graphic memoir will bring to
mind Persepolis, but it is absolutely on its own quirky
wavelength.”—Henry Chamberlain, Comics Grinder
"I Was Their American Dream is a pure and utter delight. With
both a deft lightness and a deep poignancy, Malaka Gharib perfectly
captures the feeling of growing up—of being a child of immigrants,
of being a woman of color, of being thrown in the mix between
cultures, of love, of family—with nostalgia, humor, and heart. Her
words and illustrations are wittily observed and emotional in equal
measure, able to draw a laugh and a tear over the span of a single
page. I Was Their American Dream is a portrait of growing
up in America, and a portrait of family, that pulls off the feat of
being both intimately specific and deeply universal at the same
time. I adored this book."—Jonny Sun, author and illustrator
of everyone’s a aliebn when ur a aliebn too and New
York Times best-selling illustrator of Gmorning,
Gnight! by Lin-Manuel Miranda
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