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The co-op bookstore for avid readers
Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
Reader Score
94%
94% of readers
recommend this book
Critic Reviews
Good
Based on 5 reviews on
"From its first indelible pages to its rich and startling conclusion, Invisible Child had me, by turns, stricken, inspired, outraged, illuminated, in tears, and hungering for reimmersion in its Dickensian depths."--Ayad Akhtar, author of Homeland Elegies
ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times - ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Atlantic, The New York Times Book Review, Time, NPR, Library Journal
In Invisible Child, Pulitzer Prize winner Andrea Elliott follows eight dramatic years in the life of Dasani, a girl whose imagination is as soaring as the skyscrapers near her Brooklyn shelter. In this sweeping narrative, Elliott weaves the story of Dasani's childhood with the history of her ancestors, tracing their passage from slavery to the Great Migration north. As Dasani comes of age, New York City's homeless crisis has exploded, deepening the chasm between rich and poor. She must guide her siblings through a world riddled by hunger, violence, racism, drug addiction, and the threat of foster care. Out on the street, Dasani becomes a fierce fighter "to protect those who I love." When she finally escapes city life to enroll in a boarding school, she faces an impossible question: What if leaving poverty means abandoning your family, and yourself?
A work of luminous and riveting prose, Elliott's Invisible Child reads like a page-turning novel. It is an astonishing story about the power of resilience, the importance of family and the cost of inequality--told through the crucible of one remarkable girl.
Winner of the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize - Finalist for the Bernstein Award and the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award - Longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize
Book Details
- Publisher: Random House Trade
- Publish Date: May 17th, 2022
- Pages: 640
- Language: English
- Edition: undefined - undefined
- Dimensions: 7.95in - 5.12in - 1.57in - 1.05lb
- EAN: 9780812986952
- Categories: • Poverty & Homelessness• African American & Black• Social Classes & Economic Disparity
About the Author
More books by Andrea Elliott
What people are saying
Bee Wilson is a food writer and journalist.
This is one of the most moving & extraordinary pieces of reportage I’ve ever read. INVISIBLE CHILD by Andrea Elliott. The story of poverty in New York told through the eyes of one child, called Dasani after the water. It’s published in the U.K. on Thursday @HutchHeinemann https://t.co/HmeunOBf3y
All things books from The New York Times. You like reading, we do too.
Andrea Elliott's 2013 New York Times series on Dasani, a homeless girl living in a Brooklyn shelter, was a story you couldn't shake. Her new book, "Invisible Child," expands on that series, yielding a rare and powerful work of unflinching reporting. https://nyti.ms/3upYZFb
Library views, news, and book reviews from LJ staffers
LJ starred review: Andrea Elliott's Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City is "An unforgettable account, both heartrending and heartbreaking, of structural racism and inequality." https://t.co/qzN3G0qxw1 https://t.co/v5YU5lUCza
Critics’ reviews
Praise for this book
"A classic to rank with Orwell."--The Sunday Times
"From its first indelible pages to its rich and startling conclusion, Invisible Child had me, by turns, stricken, inspired, outraged, illuminated, in tears, and hungering for reimmersion in its Dickensian depths. This book is so many things: a staggering feat of reporting, an act of profound civic love, an extraordinarily moving tale about the fierceness of family love, and above all, a future American classic."--Ayad Akhtar, author of Homeland Elegies
"A wonderful and important book."--Tracy Kidder, author of Strength in What Remains and Mountains Beyond Mountains
"Andrea Elliott's Invisible Child swept me away. Filled with unexpected twists and turns, Dasani's journey kept me up nights reading. Elliott spins out a deeply moving story about Dasani and her family, whose struggles underscore the stresses of growing up poor and Black in an American city, and the utter failure of institutions to extend a helping hand. Invisible Child is a triumph."--Alex Kotlowitz, bestselling author of There Are No Children Here
"Elliott's book is a triumph of in-depth reporting and storytelling. It is a visceral blow-by-blow depiction of what 'structural racism' has meant in the lives of generations of one family. But above all else it is a celebration of a little girl--an unforgettable heroine whose frustration, elation, exhaustion, and intelligence will haunt your heart."--Ariel Levy, author of The Rules Do Not Apply
"With her Invisible Child, Andrea Elliott has achieved a towering feat of reporting that paints, layer by layer, an extraordinary portrait of a child, a family, a city, and the nation that produced them. From start to finish, she sustains an insatiably curious and deeply empathetic focus on worlds that so many people work hard, if mostly unconsciously, to never really see."--Howard W. French, author of Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War
"Invisible Child is hands down the best book I have read in years. This is a profoundly moving investigation into what it means to truly love other human beings. . . . A masterpiece."--Thomas Harding, bestselling author of Hanns and Rudolf and Blood on the Page
"Stunning . . . a remarkable achievement that speaks to the heart and conscience of a nation."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A heartbreaking story of a family . . . This important book packs a real gut punch."--Booklist (starred review)
What people are saying
Bee Wilson is a food writer and journalist.
This is one of the most moving & extraordinary pieces of reportage I’ve ever read. INVISIBLE CHILD by Andrea Elliott. The story of poverty in New York told through the eyes of one child, called Dasani after the water. It’s published in the U.K. on Thursday @HutchHeinemann https://t.co/HmeunOBf3y
All things books from The New York Times. You like reading, we do too.
Andrea Elliott's 2013 New York Times series on Dasani, a homeless girl living in a Brooklyn shelter, was a story you couldn't shake. Her new book, "Invisible Child," expands on that series, yielding a rare and powerful work of unflinching reporting. https://nyti.ms/3upYZFb