"Sharp, bracingly clear. . . . [Conditional Citizens] doesn't just ask you to consider that the personal is political; it makes you marvel that anyone could still presume otherwise." --Entertainment Weekly

"Political writing at its most effective, grounded in the author's experience but turned outward, to the inequities (and worse) many Americans face as a matter of course." --Los Angeles Times

"An urgent, compelling, and persuasive book, written by one of our most important critics of the American character. Lalami has given us a clear-eyed, evenhanded assessment of this country's potential--and its limits--through her insightful notion of conditional citizenship. Her book is a gift to all Americans--if they are willing to receive it."--Viet Thanh Nguyen, author of The Sympathizer and Nothing Ever Dies

"Lalami's passionate exploration shows that for citizens like herself, being treated as fully American is rarely a given. In striking prose, she explores the United States' tortured history of questioning who belongs and forces us to examine the gap between the dream and the reality of American life." --Time

"No-holds-barred. . . . [Lalami] thread[s] together the experiences of a breathtakingly diverse underclass." --NPR

"An argument for active, equal United States citizenship. . . . [A] very strong book." --The Boston Globe

"Probing, unflinching, and fiercely intelligent. . . . Laila Lalami writes with such sharp clarity and illuminating insight that reading this book was like encountering America for the first time." --Maaza Mengiste, author of The Shadow King

"The beautifully written personal stories . . . give Conditional Citizens a flair and warmth rare in a polemic about what's wrong with America." --Minneapolis Star Tribune

"[A] propulsive, fascinating, and infuriating account of citizenship in the U.S. . . . Lalami treats this complex, incendiary topic with nuanced consideration and blistering insight." --Booklist (starred review)

"Lalami shows how our nation's schizophrenia toward immigrants--Immigrants built this great country! We are a nation of immigrants! Immigrants bring disease, crime and rob us of our jobs!--can give conditional citizens whiplash as they are simultaneously regarded as America's best hope and its gravest threat, a combination of suspicion and rejection that Asians, Italians and the Irish, among others, have all faced." --The New York Times Book Review

"[A] profound inquiry into the American immigrant experience. . . . Lalami offers essential insights into how racism and sexism function in American society." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"With great moral passion and intellectual verve, Lalami explores the questions the political volcanoes of our times have thrown at us. . . . She equips us with bracingly fresh resources to confront our terrible new age of mass deportations, border walls, and brutally enforced statelessness." --Pankaj Mishra, author of Age of Anger