How to Make a Life

Description

When as a young man Migmar first fled across the Himalayas toward an uncertain future, he wondered how he would start a new life somewhere else—without a country, citizenship, education, or job. Years later, raising a family in a refugee camp in India, he and his wife, Tenzin, asked themselves the same question as they considered entering a US immigration lottery. “Let’s try,” Tenzin said, setting the family on a difficult and rewarding path, both remarkable and familiar to the many immigrant families who have taken it. When they finally made it to the United States, Madeline Uraneck, a single woman and self-confessed meddler, thought she would help the newcomers navigate American life—involving herself for a few years at most—but Migmar and Tenzin had other ideas. They welcomed her into their home and their daily lives. An evocative blend of immersion journalism and memoir, How to Make a Life shares the immigration story of a Tibetan refugee family who crossed real and cultural bridges to make a life in Madison, Wisconsin, with the assistance of the Midwestern woman they befriended.