Land of Broken Promises

Ages 8 to 12, Grades 3 to 7

In this follow-up to In the Beautiful Country, which Gene Luen Yang called “vivid and heartbreaking,” the story of Taiwanese immigrant Anna’s tumultuous life in America continues.

After a rocky first year, Anna and her parents have settled into life in California—their restaurant is even turning a profit. Then her family makes a discovery that shatters their tranquil reality: their visas have expired.

Anna’s world is suddenly overwhelmed by new words like “undocumented” and “inequality.” She longs to share the towering secret that looms over every aspect of her life, but her parents strictly forbid her from telling anyone. As Anna grapples with the complexities of being undocumented, the strain that it places on her family, and the loneliness of keeping it all to herself, she has to wonder—if America is the promised land, why does everything she’s hoped for feel like a lie?

Perfect for fans of Kelly Yang, Reem Faruqi, and Jasmine Warga, this novel in verse is a searing companion to In the Beautiful Country and focuses on themes of legal documentation, identity, and language’s ability to divide and unite.

About the Author

JANE KUO is a Chinese and Taiwanese American writer who grew up in Los Angeles in the 1980s. Jane's novels, In the Beautiful Country and Land of Broken Promises are fictional stories inspired by the weekends and summers she spent working in her family's fast food restaurant. Please visit her online at www.janekuo.com.