{"product_id":"lies-we-tell-for-america","title":"Lies We Tell for America","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA brilliant, piercing, and funny exploration following one woman's journey in navigating the fraught higher education system during the COVID-19 pandemic as an international student.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Lies We Tell for America\u003c\/i\u003e is beautifully particular and unexpectedly relentless in its haunting goodness. Geeez! Ber Anena manages to write New York, romance, and graduate school as inventive as I have seen all three of them written this decade.\" \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e-Kiese Laymon, award-winning author of \u003ci\u003eHeavy\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 2019, Ugandan writer Ber Anena opened her email and was overjoyed to find that she'd been accepted into Columbia University's prestigious MFA in Writing. Then, reality struck: It would cost approximately $150,000 in tuition and fees alone for the two-year degree.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnena scrambles to secure funding, leaving the security of her stable income, apartment, and family in Uganda for great uncertainty in the United States. Studying in New York quickly morphs from an ideal to an ordeal. From maneuvering icy roommates to grappling with food insecurity and calling out racism in her writing workshops, Anena begins to rewrite the narrative of the American Dream she had once accepted. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIncandescent and uncompromising, funny and humane, \u003ci\u003eThe Lies We Tell for America\u003c\/i\u003e charts the lengths students from \"shithole\" countries go to seek an education in the West. These pages lay bare Anena's own cultural assumptions, while shining light on a particular kind of migrant experience. After everything-was coming to America worth it?\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57503544836469,"sku":"9781250412010","price":29.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781250412010.jpg?v=1786867248","url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/products\/lies-we-tell-for-america","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}