An American Immigrant

A Novel

By: Johanna Rojas Vann

Narrated by: Allison Strong

A Colombian American journalist tries to save her career by taking an assignment somewhere she never thought she’d go—Colombia—in this heartwarming debut novel about rediscovering our family stories.

“A beautiful homage to a mother’s bravery and to the grace and grit that is our inheritance.”—Alicia Menendez, MSNBC anchor and creator and host of the Latina to Latina podcast

International Latino Book Award Gold Winner for Best First Book—Fiction; Silver Winner for The Isabel Allende Most Inspirational Fiction • Christy Award Finalist • Tennessee State Book Award Finalist

Twenty-five-year-old Melanie Carvajal, a hardworking but struggling journalist for a Miami newspaper, loves her Colombian mother but regularly ignores her phone calls, frustrated that she never quite takes the time to understand Melanie’s life. When the opportunity arises for a big assignment that might save her flagging career, Melanie follows the story to the land of her mother’s birth. She soon realizes Colombia has the potential to connect her, after all these years, to something she’s long ignored: her heritage, the love of her mother, her family, and the richest parts of herself.

Colombia offers more than a chance to make a name for herself as a writer. It is a place of untold stories.

Inspired by real-life events, An American Immigrant is a story of culture and community, of abiding commitment to family, and of embracing our culture and the generations that have come before.

©2023 Johanna Rojas Vann (P)2023 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“A beautiful homage to a mother’s bravery and the grace and grit that is our inheritance. An American Immigrant is a clarion call to water our roots and refuse to allow those we love to be lost in translation.” —Alicia Menendez, MSNBC anchor and creator and host of Latina to Latina podcast

“In a yearning and humbling journey to the place of her mother’s birth, a fictional Miami journalist discovers her innermost worth by yielding to family truth, creative courage, and cultural clarity—which she needs to give both her heart and the hard world her authentic best. An enchanting, brave, and uplifting story of discovery, family love, and determined hope.” —Patricia Raybon, Christy Award–winning author of the Annalee Spain Mystery series and My First White Friend: Confessions on Race, Love, and Forgiveness

“In a yearning and humbling journey to the place of her mother’s birth, a fictional Miami journalist discovers her innermost worth by yielding to family truth, creative courage, and cultural clarity—which she needs to give both her heart and the hard world her authentic best. An enchanting, brave, and uplifting story of discovery, family love, and determined hope.” —Patricia Raybon, Christy Award–winning author of the Annalee Spain Mystery series and My First White Friend: Confessions on Race, Love, and Forgiveness

A must listen or read!

This book was so easy to relate. Very engaged and so many emotions. I couldn’t stop listening. Thank you!

A Good Tale

An American Immigrant was a good story detailing the fight to reach America and the challenges faced by 2nd generation children. The narrator also did a good job with the various characters and different emotions. I enjoyed it and recommend it

Culture

I very much enjoyed this book. The story is like real life. It made me miss my long gone family. I wish I could’ve asked so many questions. Thank you for your story

The potential storyline

I really liked where the storyline was headed but I felt like this is a book for much more young minds. I would’ve preferred something a little less heartfelt and a bit more intense. The performance of the narrator was good but definitely more for a less mature audience

RECOMMEND

I listened to it on my way to work and home, everyday I’ll get excited to know what was coming going to happen next. As a first generation daughter, I relate to this story with both the mom and the daughter. It’s open my eyes about my own life.

Immigrants !

Loved the opportunity to hear a voice sharing the immigrant experience’s impact on the next generations

Love this!!!

I loved everything about this book except that it ended 🤗
I loved all the Spanish in it.

So relatable

I loved this book. As a Colombian American with similar family experience I really enjoyed listening to Melanie's story and her new found connection to Colombia and her family

Loved it!

My first time ever reading a Colombian immigration story plus the second generation perspective as the kids of immigrants. As a Colombian myself I loved the story and all the commentary about Colombia, but also the struggle to understand our identity and having to be between two cultures, the hardship many immigrants go through when moving to the US and many don’t even want to leave their home countries. There is also the theme around trusting your gut, and being authentic to what drives you, that can lead to career success that otherwise wouldn’t have happened.

Soo glad this book found me!

This book found me! How? I don't know, but I feel like I was supposed to read it. I really loved this book. As a child of immigrant parents from Colombia there are so many things that I can relate to Melanie about. There are things in Melanie that I feel my own 3rd generation children would relate to her to as well. I appreciated how the author developed the mother/daughter relationship and that the journals were such a big part of that discovery. Listening to this book really made a difference for me as the narrator made these characters come alive and so relatable through accents and recognizable sayings. This book appeals to the writer in everyone. It really does inspire me to want to write my own parents story one day. I have shared this book with my own Colombian girlfriends as a book club read this month so that discussion will be fantastic to say the least. And I have suggested to my boys to read it before our own trip to Colombia and Mexico this summer. We've never been there together and I am hoping that by reading it they will also be able to see their parents cultures with open arms and open hearts. Thank you for sharing such a lovely story!