A scorching memoir of an undocumented childhood, and what it means to live an invisible life When 7-year old Qian moves to Mei Guo with her mother she doesn´t know what to expect from the place, otherwise known as America, that translates to ´Beautiful Country´. In China she was the daughter of Professors, a popular student leading a comfortable middle-class life. In America she simply does not exist. This is the story of a childhood spent in extreme poverty as an undocumented Chinese immigrant in Brooklyn. From manual labour in a sushi factory to learning English in elementary school, the days spent scavenging the neighbourhood for furniture to emergency treatment in hospital, Qian Julie Wang´s memoir is an unforgettable account of what it means to live under the perpetual threat of deportation, where being seen is an act of danger. Told from a child´s perspective, in a voice that is intimate, poignant and startlingly lyrical, Beautiful Country is the story of a girl who learns first to live - and then escape - an invisible life.