The Story of Three Newcomers Who Breathed Life into a Dying American Town
April 15, 2022
The insightful and fascinating nonfiction debut by poet and journalist Hartman focuses on three immigrants to Utica, New York, as Hartman painstakingly and patiently documents their lives over the course of eight years. Ali Sarhan, who served as a translator for American forces in his home country of Iraq, creates a new life with an American woman, but is still torn between his former country and his new one. Mersiha Omeragic, a Bosnian refugee, teaches English as a second language and opens a bakery and caf�. Sadia Ambure, a Somali Bantu who is a stubborn high school student when Hartman first meets her, struggles for independence from her family. Hartman interweaves their stories with those of other immigrants who establish themselves in this Rust Belt city, shaping its life for the better, and reviews the complicated history of post-industrial cities in the Northeast. In doing so, she will hone and reshape the reader's understanding of the impact of refugees on American society.
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May 2, 2022
In this immersive study, poet and journalist Hartman (Satyr) profiles three refugee families in Utica, N.Y. Drawing on in-depth interviews and close personal observation conducted over an eight-year period beginning in 2013, Hartman focuses on Sadia Ambure, a “bright, rebellious” Somali Bantu teenager who lives with 18 family members in a “formerly grand” house on Rutger St.; Ali Sarhan, an Iraqi interpreter torn between his American girlfriend and his sisters and mother back in Baghdad; and Mersiha Omeragic, a Bosnian refugee who runs a popular bakery out of her home and finally realizes her dream of opening a café, only to see it shut down by Covid-19. Interwoven with the personal triumphs and travails, including Sadia’s clashes with her mother, and Ali’s decision to take a job in Iraq, is the history of Utica, where the loss of manufacturing jobs beginning in the 1970s brought gang violence, drug dealing, and frequent arson but left behind plentiful and inexpensive housing. Though the abrupt shifts between families can be disorienting, Hartman draws an intimate and captivating portrait of the struggle to build new lives while holding on to old values. Readers will gain vital insight into the immigrant experience in America.