... simply brilliant, both in its granular storytelling and its enormous compassion. This book should be required reading for anyone trying to understand the challenges of getting to and surviving in the United States in the Trump era, and it would make an excellent, subversive gift for those who believe that closing our borders is the best way to keep America strong.

... compelling.

Goudeau illustrates that though stories of refugees like Mu Naw are everywhere, they can be hard to access and understand, even for those who have known the refugees for years.

It’s obvious that Goudeau was able to gain the two women’s trust, resulting in compelling stories that offer intimate looks into their personal lives and uncover horrific details about what they’ve seen and experienced. Their histories emerge through alternating chapters broken up by excerpts that provide social and political background about American refugee resettlement from the nineteenth century to the present day. These profiles are sympathetic and ultimately profoundly moving..

Goudeau agreed to use pseudonyms for the two women she expertly draws out in this book. While the absence of pictures and real names makes it more difficult to mentally and emotionally connect with the two main characters, Goudeau rises to the reporting and writing challenge, showing how seemingly ordinary tasks such as struggling to operate a shower control amplifies loneliness and the loss of everything the refugees once knew.

Goudeau's work with a refugee resettlement agency in Texas informs her intimate portrait of two women whose families sought safety in the United States. By alternately focusing on the individual experiences of Mu Naw from Myanmar and Hasna from Syria, the author humanizes their departures from their homes, the complex and frightening refugee process they encountered, and their different experiences.

...compelling, eye-opening.

...in the midst of this rekindled far-right fear of refugees and immigrants, Austin-area activist and writer Jessica Goudeau has bravely researched and written After the Last Border. Goudeau’s book is a much-needed nonfiction corrective.

Journalist Goudeau presents a richly detailed account of the resettlement experiences of two women granted refugee status in the U.S..

... moving.