Author of A Good Country
A Good Country: My Life in Twelve Towns and the Devastating Battle for a White America follows the story of Sofia Ali-Khan, a Muslim Pakistani/American/Canadian in the places in America she called home. Part memoir, part historical exploration, A Good Country examines how racist-forced migration has maintained a white America.
The book chronicles the author's experiences tripping over the colour line in each town she was living in and reveals the hidden backstory of the colour line. How did America's Chinatowns originate? What happened to the original indigenous Maroon and Seminole people in the creation of Florida? A Good Country seeks answers to questions like these across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Arizona, South Dakota, Arkansas, Massachusetts, and Illinois. As she ties historical narratives into her life history, Sofia Ali-Khan gives a first-hand account of what it is like growing up and living in the U.S. as a Muslim American. Her book is both a coming-of-age and a coming-to-faith story that poses the ultimate question of what would it take to make America a good country?
Sofia Ali-Khan is a social justice lawyer turned writer. Her essays have appeared in TIME Magazine, Los Angeles Times, and the Chicago Tribune, among other venues, earning her a 2022 Pushcart Prize nomination. As an attorney, she worked on welfare rights, immigrant rights, and community economic development and became a national leader on the right to language access in the United States. A Good Country is her first book, and much of it was written at her home in Burlington, Ontario.
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