Make Your Home Among Strangers
Jennine Capó Crucet · first published 2015 · ISBN 9781250059666
Lizet is a first-generation college student whose parents are Cuban immigrants. She navigates an elite university while managing her family's expectations, her parents' recent divorce, and the constant pressure to justify her presence in a world where she is visibly different from most students.
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The Best Books for First-Generation College Students
This novel captures the emotional weight of being first-gen in ways memoir sometimes can't. Crucet shows the specific guilt of leaving home, the exhaustion of code-switching, and the quiet loneliness of having no family reference point for what you're experiencing.