
City of Refugees
The Story of Three Newcomers Who Breathed Life into a Dying American Town
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $15.60
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Samara Naeymi
-
By:
-
Susan Hartman
About this listen
A gripping portrait of refugees who forged a new life in the Rust Belt, the deep roots they’ve formed in their community, and their role in shaping its culture and prosperity.
"This is an American tale that everyone should read. . . . The storytelling is so intimate and the characters feel so deeply real that you will know them like neighbors."—Jake Halpern, author of Welcome to the New World
War, persecution, natural disasters, and climate change continue to drive millions around the world from their homes. In this “tender, intimate, and important book—a carefully reported rebuttal to the xenophobic narratives that define so much of modern American politics” (Sarah Stillman, staff writer, The New Yorker), journalist Susan Hartman follows 3 refugees over 8 years and tells the story of how they built new lives in the old manufacturing town of Utica, New York. Sadia, a Somali Bantu teenager, rebels against her mother; Ali, an Iraqi interpreter, creates a home with an American woman but is haunted by war; and Mersiha, a Bosnian baker, gambles everything to open a café.
Along the way, Hartman “illuminates the humanity of these outsiders while demonstrating the crucial role immigrants play in the economy—and the soul—of the nation" (Los Angeles Times). The 3 newcomers are part of an extraordinary migration over the past 4 decades; thousands fleeing war and persecution have transformed Utica, opening small businesses, fixing up abandoned houses, and adding a spark of vitality to forlorn city streets. Utica is not alone. Other Rust Belt cities—including Buffalo, Dayton, and Detroit—have also welcomed refugees, hoping to jump-start their economies and attract a younger population.
City of Refugees is a complex and poignant story of a small city but also of America—a country whose promise of safe harbor and opportunity is knotty and incomplete, but undeniably alive.
©2022 Susan Hartman (P)2022 Beacon PressListeners also enjoyed...
-
How High We Go in the Dark
- A Novel
- By: Sequoia Nagamatsu
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan, Brian Nishii, Keisuke Hoashi, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2030, a grieving archeologist arrives in the Arctic Circle to continue the work of his recently deceased daughter at the Batagaika Crater, where researchers are studying long-buried secrets now revealed in melting permafrost, including the perfectly preserved remains of a girl who appears to have died of an ancient virus. Once unleashed, the Arctic plague will reshape life on Earth for generations to come, quickly traversing the globe, forcing humanity to devise a myriad of moving and inventive ways to embrace possibility in the face of tragedy.
-
-
Should come with a sadness warning
- By KJH on 03-16-22
-
Doppelganger
- A Trip into the Mirror World
- By: Naomi Klein
- Narrated by: Naomi Klein
- Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What if you woke up one morning and found you’d acquired another self—a double who was almost you and yet not you at all? What if that double shared many of your preoccupations but, in a twisted, upside-down way, furthered the very causes you’d devoted your life to fighting against? Not long ago, the celebrated activist and public intellectual Naomi Klein had just such an experience—she was confronted with a doppelganger whose views she found abhorrent but whose name and public persona were sufficiently similar to her own that many people got confused about who was who.
-
-
Elite Psychobabble
- By A Reviewer on 09-30-23
By: Naomi Klein
-
The Ride of Her Life
- The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America
- By: Elizabeth Letts
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Letts, Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1954, 63-year-old Maine farmer Annie Wilkins embarked on an impossible journey. She had no money and no family, she had just lost her farm, and her doctor had given her only two years to live. But Annie wanted to see the Pacific Ocean before she died. She ignored her doctor’s advice to move into the county charity home. Instead, she bought a cast-off brown gelding named Tarzan, donned men’s dungarees, and headed south in mid-November, hoping to beat the snow.
-
-
Not sure….
- By BeagleMom on 06-14-21
By: Elizabeth Letts
-
Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions
- Third Edition
- By: Gloria Steinem
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik, Gabra Zackman, Gloria Steinem, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An updated third edition of the renowned feminist’s most diverse and timeless collection of essays, with a new foreword written by Emma Watson and new material written and read by Gloria Steinem.
-
-
A Must Read (or listen) For Every Generation
- By Rachel Marsala on 05-15-20
By: Gloria Steinem
-
The Woman's Hour
- The Great Fight to Win the Vote
- By: Elaine Weiss
- Narrated by: Elaine Weiss, Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 16 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nashville, August 1920. Thirty-five states have ratified the Nineteenth Amendment, 12 have rejected or refused to vote, and one last state is needed. It all comes down to Tennessee, the moment of truth for the suffragists, after a seven-decade crusade. The opposing forces include politicians with careers at stake, liquor companies, railroad magnates, and a lot of racists who don't want black women voting. And then there are the "Antis" - women who oppose their own enfranchisement, fearing suffrage will bring about the moral collapse of the nation.
-
-
Good book, poor choice of reader
- By Amazon Customer on 05-24-18
By: Elaine Weiss
-
American Refuge
- True Stories of the Refugee Experience
- By: Diya Abdo
- Narrated by: Diya Abdo
- Length: 5 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this intimate and eye-opening book, Diya Abdo—daughter of refugees, U.S. immigrant, English professor, and activist—shares the stories of seven refugees. Coming from around the world, they’re welcomed by Every Campus A Refuge (ECAR), an organization Diya founded to leverage existing resources at colleges to provide temporary shelter to refugee families.
By: Diya Abdo
-
How High We Go in the Dark
- A Novel
- By: Sequoia Nagamatsu
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan, Brian Nishii, Keisuke Hoashi, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2030, a grieving archeologist arrives in the Arctic Circle to continue the work of his recently deceased daughter at the Batagaika Crater, where researchers are studying long-buried secrets now revealed in melting permafrost, including the perfectly preserved remains of a girl who appears to have died of an ancient virus. Once unleashed, the Arctic plague will reshape life on Earth for generations to come, quickly traversing the globe, forcing humanity to devise a myriad of moving and inventive ways to embrace possibility in the face of tragedy.
-
-
Should come with a sadness warning
- By KJH on 03-16-22
-
Doppelganger
- A Trip into the Mirror World
- By: Naomi Klein
- Narrated by: Naomi Klein
- Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What if you woke up one morning and found you’d acquired another self—a double who was almost you and yet not you at all? What if that double shared many of your preoccupations but, in a twisted, upside-down way, furthered the very causes you’d devoted your life to fighting against? Not long ago, the celebrated activist and public intellectual Naomi Klein had just such an experience—she was confronted with a doppelganger whose views she found abhorrent but whose name and public persona were sufficiently similar to her own that many people got confused about who was who.
-
-
Elite Psychobabble
- By A Reviewer on 09-30-23
By: Naomi Klein
-
The Ride of Her Life
- The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America
- By: Elizabeth Letts
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Letts, Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1954, 63-year-old Maine farmer Annie Wilkins embarked on an impossible journey. She had no money and no family, she had just lost her farm, and her doctor had given her only two years to live. But Annie wanted to see the Pacific Ocean before she died. She ignored her doctor’s advice to move into the county charity home. Instead, she bought a cast-off brown gelding named Tarzan, donned men’s dungarees, and headed south in mid-November, hoping to beat the snow.
-
-
Not sure….
- By BeagleMom on 06-14-21
By: Elizabeth Letts
-
Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions
- Third Edition
- By: Gloria Steinem
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik, Gabra Zackman, Gloria Steinem, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An updated third edition of the renowned feminist’s most diverse and timeless collection of essays, with a new foreword written by Emma Watson and new material written and read by Gloria Steinem.
-
-
A Must Read (or listen) For Every Generation
- By Rachel Marsala on 05-15-20
By: Gloria Steinem
-
The Woman's Hour
- The Great Fight to Win the Vote
- By: Elaine Weiss
- Narrated by: Elaine Weiss, Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 16 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nashville, August 1920. Thirty-five states have ratified the Nineteenth Amendment, 12 have rejected or refused to vote, and one last state is needed. It all comes down to Tennessee, the moment of truth for the suffragists, after a seven-decade crusade. The opposing forces include politicians with careers at stake, liquor companies, railroad magnates, and a lot of racists who don't want black women voting. And then there are the "Antis" - women who oppose their own enfranchisement, fearing suffrage will bring about the moral collapse of the nation.
-
-
Good book, poor choice of reader
- By Amazon Customer on 05-24-18
By: Elaine Weiss
-
American Refuge
- True Stories of the Refugee Experience
- By: Diya Abdo
- Narrated by: Diya Abdo
- Length: 5 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this intimate and eye-opening book, Diya Abdo—daughter of refugees, U.S. immigrant, English professor, and activist—shares the stories of seven refugees. Coming from around the world, they’re welcomed by Every Campus A Refuge (ECAR), an organization Diya founded to leverage existing resources at colleges to provide temporary shelter to refugee families.
By: Diya Abdo
-
The Third Mrs. Galway
- By: Deirdre Sinnott
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lee
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s 1835 in Utica, New York, and newlywed Helen Galway discovers a secret: Two runaway slaves are hiding in the shack behind her husband’s house. Suddenly, she is at the center of not only the era’s greatest moral dilemma, but her own, as well. Should she be a “good wife” and report the fugitives to her husband? Or will she defy convention and come to their aid? Within her home, Helen is haunted by the previous Mrs. Galway, recently deceased but still an oppressive presence.
-
-
Never thought I'd enjoy a novel so much.
- By HBvideo on 12-01-21
By: Deirdre Sinnott
-
Learning America
- One Woman's Fight for Educational Justice for Refugee Children
- By: Luma Mufleh
- Narrated by: Luma Mufleh
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It was a wrong turn that changed everything. When Luma Mufleh—a Muslim, gay, refugee woman from hyper-conservative Jordan—stumbled upon a pick-up game of soccer in Clarkston, Georgia, something compelled her to join. The players, 11- and 12-year-olds from Liberia, Afghanistan, and Sudan, soon welcomed her as coach of their ragtag but fiercely competitive group. Drawn into their lives, Mufleh learned that few of her players, all local public school students, could read a single word. She asks, “Where was the America that took me in? That protected me? How can I get these kids to that America?”
-
-
A truly inspirational tale
- By Helen Hyun on 03-01-24
By: Luma Mufleh
-
Becoming
- By: Michelle Obama
- Narrated by: Michelle Obama
- Length: 19 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites listeners into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her - from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work to her time spent at the world's most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it - in her own words and on her own terms.
-
-
Didn't know what I was getting into
- By Kenneth Woodward on 12-05-18
By: Michelle Obama
-
Nomad Century
- How Climate Migration Will Reshape Our World
- By: Gaia Vince
- Narrated by: Gaia Vince
- Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drought-hit regions bleeding those who for whom a rural life has become untenable. Coastlines diminishing year on year. Wildfires and hurricanes leaving widening swaths of destruction. The culprit, most of us accept, is climate change, but not enough of us are confronting one of its biggest, and most present, consequences: a total reshaping of the earth’s human geography. As Gaia Vince points out early in Nomad Century, global migration has doubled in the past decade, on track to see literal billions displaced in the coming decades.
-
-
Too many Horrible Things
- By Trebla on 09-01-22
By: Gaia Vince
-
The Wife of Bath
- A Biography
- By: Marion Turner
- Narrated by: Marion Turner
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Wife of Bath, Marion Turner tells the fascinating story of where Chaucer’s favourite character came from, how she related to real medieval women, and where her many travels have taken her since the fourteenth century, from Falstaff and Molly Bloom to #MeToo and Black Lives Matter.
-
-
Tracing the role and character of the Wife of Bath through history and literature, in a wide variety of British eras and genres.
- By Amazon Customer on 03-27-24
By: Marion Turner
-
The Ungrateful Refugee
- What Immigrants Never Tell You
- By: Dina Nayeri
- Narrated by: Dina Nayeri
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Aged eight, Dina Nayeri fled Iran along with her mother and brother and lived in the crumbling shell of an Italian hotel-turned-refugee camp. Eventually, she was granted asylum in America. She settled in Oklahoma, then made her way to Princeton University. In this book, Nayeri weaves together her own vivid story with the stories of other refugees and asylum seekers in recent years, bringing us inside their daily lives and taking us through the different stages of their journeys, from escape to asylum to resettlement.
-
-
Amazing story of resilience and compassion
- By PAH on 09-06-19
By: Dina Nayeri
-
Frank and Al
- FDR, Al Smith, and the Unlikely Alliance That Created the Modern Democratic Party
- By: Terry Golway
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Just before the Roaring Twenties, Al Smith, a proud son of the Tammany Hall political machine, and Franklin Roosevelt, a country squire, formed an unlikely alliance that transformed the Democratic Party. Smith and FDR dominated politics in the most-powerful state in the union for a quarter-century, and in 1932, they ran against each other for the Democratic presidential nomination, setting off one of the great feuds in American history. The relationship between Smith and Roosevelt, portrayed here, is one of the most dramatic untold stories of early 20th-century American politics.
-
-
The relationship between FDR and Al Smith.
- By Josephine Halpert on 01-18-25
By: Terry Golway
-
In Order to Live
- A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom
- By: Yeonmi Park
- Narrated by: Eji Kim
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In In Order to Live, Yeonmi Park shines a light not just into the darkest corners of life in North Korea, describing the deprivation and deception she endured and which millions of North Korean people continue to endure to this day, but also onto her own most painful and difficult memories. She tells with bravery and dignity for the first time the story of how she and her mother were betrayed and sold into sexual slavery in China and forced to suffer terrible psychological and physical hardship before they finally made their way to Seoul, South Korea - and to freedom.
-
-
Wow. What a story!
- By Jfm on 02-01-16
By: Yeonmi Park
-
The Undocumented Americans
- By: Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
- Narrated by: Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
- Length: 4 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Writer Karla Cornejo Villavicencio was on DACA when she decided to write about being undocumented for the first time using her own name. It was right after the election of 2016, the day she realized the story she'd tried to steer clear of was the only one she wanted to tell. So she wrote her immigration lawyer's phone number on her hand in Sharpie and embarked on a trip across the country to tell the stories of her fellow undocumented immigrants—and to find the hidden key to her own.
-
-
Raw, heartbreaking - we can do better by others
- By RapaciousReader on 04-11-20
-
The Color of Water
- A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother
- By: James McBride
- Narrated by: JD Jackson, Susan Denaker
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Who is Ruth McBride Jordan? A self-declared "light-skinned" woman evasive about her ethnicity, yet steadfast in her love for her 12 Black children. James McBride, journalist, musician, and son, explores his mother's past, as well as his own upbringing and heritage, in a poignant and powerful debut, The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother.
-
-
Awesome
- By Michael on 05-30-17
By: James McBride
-
The Water Will Come
- Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World
- By: Jeff Goodell
- Narrated by: Ian Ferguson
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What if Atlantis wasn't a myth but an early precursor to a new age of great flooding? Across the globe, scientists and civilians alike are noticing rapidly rising sea levels and higher and higher tides pushing more water directly into the places we live, from our most vibrant, historic cities to our last remaining traditional coastal villages. With each crack in the great ice sheets of the Arctic and Antarctica and each tick upward of Earth's thermometer, we are moving closer to the brink of broad disaster.
-
-
Well-intentioned but amateurish
- By R. P. on 10-10-19
By: Jeff Goodell
-
Morgenthau
- Power, Privilege, and the Rise of an American Dynasty
- By: Andrew Meier
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 38 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An “epic and intimate” (David M. Kennedy) portrait of four generations of the Morgenthau family, a dynasty of power brokers and public officials with an outsize—and previously unmapped—influence extending from daily life in New York City to the shaping of the American Century.
-
-
Our country’s history revealed
- By Anonymous User on 03-04-24
By: Andrew Meier
Critic reviews
"Insightful and fascinating . . . will hone and reshape the reader's understanding of the impact of refugees on American society."—Booklist
"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."—Publishers Weekly
"Susan Hartman illuminates the humanity of these outsiders while demonstrating the crucial role immigrants play in the economy—and the soul—of the nation."—Stuart Miller, Los Angeles Times
What listeners say about City of Refugees
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- "dcreader54"
- 12-20-22
Vivid portrait of three refugee families
Wonderfully vivid and intimate portrait of the Rust Belt city of Utica, New York, which had lost large percentages of its population, not to mention its vitality and hope for the future, until it began to welcome refugees. Hartman takes us deeply into the lives of three refugees—from Somalia, Iraq, and Bosnia—and their families, their struggles, their joys, and their immense creativity and industriousness as they come to terms with the traumas they’ve endured and make a new life for themselves in America. Samara Naeymi's narration was excellent.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!