Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival, and Hope in an American City

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER - NATIONAL BESTSELLER - A ＂vivid and devastating＂ (The New York Times) portrait of an indomitable girl--from acclaimed journalist Andrea Elliott

＂From its first indelible pages to its rich and startling conclusion, Invisible Child had me, by turns, stricken, inspired, outraged, illuminated, in tears, and hungering for reimmersion in its Dickensian depths.＂--Ayad Akhtar, author of Homeland Elegies

ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times - ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Atlantic, The New York Times Book Review, Time, NPR, Library Journal

In Invisible Child, Pulitzer Prize winner Andrea Elliott follows eight dramatic years in the life of Dasani, a girl whose imagination is as soaring as the skyscrapers near her Brooklyn shelter. In this sweeping narrative, Elliott weaves the story of Dasani’s childhood with the history of her ancestors, tracing their passage from slavery to the Great Migration north. As Dasani comes of age, New York City’s homeless crisis has exploded, deepening the chasm between rich and poor. She must guide her siblings through a world riddled by hunger, violence, racism, drug addiction, and the threat of foster care. Out on the street, Dasani becomes a fierce fighter ＂to protect those who I love.＂ When she finally escapes city life to enroll in a boarding school, she faces an impossible question: What if leaving poverty means abandoning your family, and yourself?

A work of luminous and riveting prose, Elliott’s Invisible Child reads like a page-turning novel. It is an astonishing story about the power of resilience, the importance of family and the cost of inequality--told through the crucible of one remarkable girl.

Winner of the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize - Finalist for the Bernstein Award and the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award - Longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize

Andrea Elliott is an investigative reporter for The New York Times. She won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing for her three-part series ＂An Imam in America,＂ which chronicled the life of an immigrant Muslim leader in Brooklyn. Elliott’s work has been honored by the Overseas Press Club, the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the Society of Professional Journalists, and the New York Press Club, and her work was featured in Best Newspaper Writing. She was also a finalist for the National Magazine Award.