A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves

One Family and Migration in the 21st Century

By: Jason DeParle

Narrated by: Fred Sanders

One of The Washington Post's 10 Best Books of the Year

"A remarkable book...indispensable."--The Boston Globe

"A sweeping, deeply reported tale of international migration...DeParle's understanding of migration is refreshingly clear-eyed and nuanced."--The New York Times

"This is epic reporting, nonfiction on a whole other level...One of the best books on immigration written in a generation."--Matthew Desmond, author of Evicted

The definitive chronicle of our new age of global migration, told through the multi-generational saga of a Filipino family, by a veteran New York Times reporter and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist.

When Jason DeParle moved into the Manila slums with Tita Comodas and her family three decades ago, he never imagined his reporting on them would span three generations and turn into the defining chronicle of a new age--the age of global migration. In a monumental book that gives new meaning to "immersion journalism," DeParle paints an intimate portrait of an unforgettable family as they endure years of sacrifice and separation, willing themselves out of shantytown poverty into a new global middle class. At the heart of the story is Tita's daughter, Rosalie. Beating the odds, she struggles through nursing school and works her way across the Middle East until a Texas hospital fulfills her dreams with a job offer in the States.

Migration is changing the world--reordering politics, economics, and cultures across the globe. With nearly 45 million immigrants in the United States, few issues are as polarizing. But if the politics of immigration is broken, immigration itself--tens of millions of people gathered from every corner of the globe--remains an underappreciated American success. Expertly combining the personal and panoramic, DeParle presents a family saga and a global phenomenon. Restarting her life in Galveston, Rosalie brings her reluctant husband and three young children with whom she has rarely lived. They must learn to become a family, even as they learn a new country. Ordinary and extraordinary at once, their journey is a twenty-first-century classic, rendered in gripping detail.

Excellent and Important

Jason DeParle's writing style is succinct and flows well, his research is in depth and solidly grounds the book, and his subject is important -- particularly in these times, when cruise ship workers (many from the Phillippines) and others in similarly-impacted service sectors are likely to be laid off. I recommend the book to anyone who wants to learn about those who seek a better life (economically) and whose stories are human and highly relatable.

A huge work

20 years of following a family, and a well researched context in world migration. A moving and impressive book

Must listen/read!

Well written story with interludes of history and statistics showing the phenomenon of migration in recent history.

A Book for the times

A look at legal immigration and the long forgotten ideal immigrants (Filipinos) which the west doesn't always see.

This filled my heart as a daughter of immigrants

To all my first gen immigrants, I really do recommend listening to this book. So much pain and triumph in these stories 💕