Migrant Heart: Essays About Things I Can't Forget

by Reyna Grande

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir

256 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication May 12, 2026

About the author

Reyna Grande is the author of three novels, Across a Hundred Mountains, which received a 2007 American Book Award; Dancing with Butterflies, which received a 2010 International Latino Book Award, and A Ballad of Love and Glory, which was a Los Angeles Times Book Club selection in 2022. In her memoir, The Distance Between Us (Atria, 2012) Reyna recounts her experiences as a child left behind in Mexico when her parents emigrated to the U.S. in search of work, and her own journey to the U.S. as an undocumented immigrant at the age of nine. Its sequel, A Dream Called Home, was published in 2018. Her latest book is Somewhere We Are Human: Authentic Voices on Migration, Survival, and New Beginnings, an anthology by and about undocumented Americans.

Reviews

[liv · Rating 4 out of 5]

thank you netgalley for the arc! 🦋❤️‍🩹🐝🇲🇽 3.5/4 ⭐️ - i can't decide truthfully.

reyna is so honest and real in this book. she talks about very heavy subjects - alcoholism, death, grief, immigration, harsh family dynamics, sexual assault, fear of aging, to name a few. she really poured her heart out in this body of work, and i admire her greatly for this!

ive never read any of her previous work, and she mentions how each of her books were a labor of love. i loved reading about this very real and honest process of writing a book and the action that has to be taken to nurture it after its published. it isn't all butterflies and rainbows, like many things in life.

one section i absolutely loved was her section on language. while i did not grow up speaking spanish as i was the only POC (besides my cousin) in my family, i related to her so much as she mentioned her fear and anxiety of speaking broken spanish. her story is different than mine in many ways, but the anxiety surrounding the language is so valid. ❤️‍🩹

there were a few places where the book felt a little disjointed. we kind of skip around to a few topics that would relate for reyna within 1 chapter and it would just throw me off. i'd be like wait, we were talking about this, and now we're relating it to this that sorta kinda goes with this topic? that's the only reason this wasn't a 5 star for me! otherwise, i'm inclined to pick up another one of her books. i wish her nothing but success, from one latina to another 🤍

[Dayanna Garcia]

I just finished Migrant Heart by Reyna Grande, and I absolutely loved it. In her earlier books, Grande focused on the painful realities of her past, and rightfully so. Those stories carried the weight of trauma and survival. But in this memoir, she makes it clear from the very beginning that her intention is different. This time, her goal is to search for light within the very same hardships that once felt only dark.

She beautifully captures the struggle of growing up between cultures, assimilating into American life while slowly and almost without realizing it losing parts of her Mexican identity. What moved me most was her conscious effort to reframe her experiences, not to deny the pain, but to find meaning and growth within it.

As a first generation Cuban American, this book felt deeply personal. Spanish was my first language, and growing up in Miami kept me closely connected to my roots. After moving to Charlotte a decade ago, I began to feel parts of that identity soften. My Spanish is not as effortless, and the Miami Cuban accent that once shaped my voice has faded.

This book is thoughtful, reflective, and beautifully written. It made me think about identity, belonging, and the quiet ways we change over time. I felt seen in these pages and highly recommend it.

[Esta Montano · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Writing became my path...I write the stories I longed to hear, creating a home on the page myself -- a stable place in a life of transitions and losses."

In this gripping book of powerful personal narratives, Reyna Grande revisits many aspects of her life, including those that have been featured in her prior novels and memoirs. She delves deep and doesn't hold back, revealing emotions that have both accompanied her for her entire life and others that are surfacing now. She revisits the pain and trauma of her youth as a child left behind in Mexico when her parents migrated to the US, and reflects on her life in terms of what it would have been had she not crossed the Mexico/US border at nine years old. Grande recalls the pain of sexual assault that she was unable to address at the time, and also discusses what it is to age as a woman in our society, complete with health challenges that may befall us. Moreover, she talks about her career as a writer, and all that it takes to be successful, including the guilt that she has dealt with when having to leave her family to go on book tours. Grande's thoughtful essays regarding motherhood and parenting as a child who was parented in a violent home are particularly poignant.

If you are a fan of Grande's books, then this book of essays will pull it all together for you. If you don't know of her work, read this one and then go back and read her others. I enjoyed every page of this stunning collection and highly recommend it. Thank you to #Netgalley for the ARC.

[Jordan | TiredButBooked · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy.

Migrant Heart: Essays About Things I Can’t Forget by Reyna Grande reminded me why I return to essay collections again and again. Grande writes with clarity and restraint about migration, family separation, identity, and the lingering weight of memory. The essays feel intimate without being indulgent, reflective without losing narrative momentum.

What stood out most to me was how effectively she balances the personal with the political. Her experiences are deeply individual, yet they illuminate broader conversations about immigration, belonging, and cultural inheritance in a way that feels grounded rather than rhetorical. The collection invites empathy without asking for pity.

I am always drawn to essayists who can elevate the so-called “ordinary” life into something expansive. Grande does that here. Books like this are a reminder that reading across experiences is not just enriching, it’s necessary.

[Meryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this unflinchingly honest depiction of being a successful artist, a wife, a mother, and a person straddling two cultures, Grande bravely interrogates her family of origin, society at large, and herself in an attempt to make sense of the life she’s lived. These braided essays thoughtfully weave her experiences with the natural world and the political and historic influences that shape it. She shares her inspirational path from illegally crossing the border from Mexico without knowing English to becoming a master of storytelling in her adopted language. I was engaged and moved throughout. I received a galley from the publisher at an event celebrating new nonfiction from Latina writers.

[Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most beautiful collections I've ever read. I feel like, so often, we only hear one side of the story. We're either told about one half of a migrant's life or the other, and rarely see both sides at the same time. Reyna gives us a beautiful look into her life and the struggles and successes of migrating to a foreign place. I wish I could read this book for the first time again, it's beautiful and the prose is *chef's kiss*. Thank you for giving us a peek at the pieces of yourself that one rarely sees.

[Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best book I have read in a long, long time. Grande is a masterful storyteller who equally unapologetically and lyrically shares the stories of her youth. Reminiscent of Gabriel José García Márquez, Reyna Grande's words leave a mark on the reader's heart - the way literature should be..

[JXR · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic memoir which appears to be finding the bright out of the dark in the background with the incredible writing of Grande's essays. 5 stars. tysm for the arc.

[Quilted.reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ll keep this book close to my heart. I am so glad I got it off netgalley. Migrant Heart: Essays About Things I Can’t Forget by Reyna Grande isn’t about crossing borders in the way we usually hear about migration. It’s about what happens after. The emotional aftermath. The pieces of yourself that don’t quite fit back together once the journey is over.In this 2026 collection of essays Grande turns inward. Instead of focusing on the physical act of migration she writes about the internal scars it leaves behind the long term psychological and emotional costs of chasing the American Dream. She reflects on living between Mexico and the U.S. between languages, between identities, and what it means to lose parts of yourself in the process while trying to heal others.What really stood out to me is how deeply personal this book feels. Grande talks about trauma not in a neat resolved way but in the messy, ongoing way healing actually works. Family separation, loss, memory, silence, survival. These essays don’t rush toward closure. They sit in the discomfort, acknowledging that healing isn’t linear and that some wounds never fully disappear.Language and identity play a huge role here too. Grande explores what it means to change or even lose your native language and how that shift affects your sense of belonging. There’s a constant tension between who she was, who she became, and who she’s still trying to reconcile herself with across borders.Migrant Heart also positions Grande as a cultural witness. This isn’t just her story it’s a reflection of so many immigrant experiences that are often flattened or ignored. She shows how pain can be transformed into power, not by erasing it, but by naming it and refusing to forget.If you’re interested in memoirs that explore identity, trauma, migration, and the emotional weight of survival especially from an immigrant perspective this one is absolutely worth your time.