Migration Museum Book List

The Migration Museum’s book list is a thoughtfully curated selection chosen by our staff, volunteers, community curators and trustees., reflecting a wide range of perspectives and expertise.

Continually evolving and added to throughout the year, the list brings together titles on migration and related themes.

How to Leave the World by Marouane Bakhti

Ever felt caught between two worlds? Unsure where you belong – or even where you want to belong – while feeling the pressure to make life a neat, linear set of decisions? Bakhti reflects on his experiences as a Gay, Muslim, French, Moroccan – exploring the dizzying (dis)connections between land, nature, people, and culture through prose. He challenges assumed binaries: rural and urban life, heteronormative environments and queer communities, whiteness and Other. This book offers a hopeful embrace of in-betweenness – an invitation to accept the complexities of living between identities and places, and to recognise that our relationships with culture, family, lovers, and the environment can be beautifully messy.

Chosen by Mona, Head of Civic Engagement

Brotherless Night by VV Ganeshananthan

A powerful novel charting a family torn apart by the Sri Lankan civil war, the intersection of the personal and the political, and the enduring impacts of war and displacement. At its heart is Sashi, the narrator of the novel and an aspiring doctor whose beliefs and relationships with those closest to her are challenged and torn apart. It’s meticulously researched, beautifully written and emotionally devastating. I devoured it over the holiday season and have thought about it ever since.

Chosen by Matt, Communications and Engagement Director

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr

The first in the Out of the Hitler Time trilogy, I'd like to also recommend Bombs on Aunt Dainty and A Small Person Far Away, which are, I think, less read but very relevant to a YA readership, as they chart Kerr's teenage and young adult life in the UK. These semi-autobiographical novels chart the WW2 refugee experience of the much-loved and revered author-illustrator of the Mog picture books, among many others. They are authentic, relatable and document a now historical but very significant wave of migration.

Chosen by Amanda, Museum Volunteer

Orientalism by Edward Said

As the son of a mixed-heritage family, my connection with the more distant parts of my heritage can be tenuous at times. As a child then, I connected with peers of the more hippy-ish persuasion, downstream of bohemian counter-cultures that often look to the East for inspiration or even escape. While Edward Said’s critique of Orientalism takes aim at the intellectual infrastructure of empire and its caricatures of the distant peoples it sought to subjugate, he provides important lessons about fetishisation too - we might always be projecting something of ourselves into our imaginings of cultures who are somewhat unknown to us, but that needn’t preclude the possibility of really listening to them as well.

Chosen by Rob, Digital Product Manager

Lunch at 10 Pomegranate Street by Felicita Sala

A really sweet children's book where everyone living in a block of flats is making dishes from around the world to bring to share with all the neighbours. Food is often the entry-point to a culture that isn't our own and sharing food around a table can be a great equaliser. I got this for my five year old niece who loves going through the illustrated recipes, we made salmorejo and baba ghanoush together. She came to the conclusion eating is fun, cooking is boring.

Chosen by Dhakshi, Development Manager

There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak

A captivating story of three lives separated across time but connected through water. This multi-perspective novel is beautifully written, though at times heart-breaking, and transports the reader to each time and place with such engrossing detail. If you, like me, you are a lover of historical fiction and museums, this book is a must-read! I will definitely be looking to read more of Elif Shafak's work after this.

Chosen by Catherine, Development Support Manager

Ordinary Notes by Christina Sharpe

A reflective book that blends personal memory, history, and Black feminist thought. Sharpe traces how Blackness lives in the everyday, through fragments and moments shaped by care, loss, and survival. I was drawn to how Sharpe writes against traditional academic form; instead, the book reads like a personal scrapbook, with handwritten notes, drawings, and photographs. A personal archive you return to slowly.

Chosen by Nanda,

My name is not Refugee by Kate Milner

A beautifully illustrated book which helps young children understand the experience of refugees through the story of a mother and son. The story builds empathy and understanding as it draws you into each stage of the journey, with questions and prompts.

Chosen by Tia, Learning Manager

Silk Roads: A Flavour Odyssey with Recipes from Baku to Beijing by Anna Ansari

I love Silk Roads because it feels like more than just a cookbook—it’s a journey through history, memory, and culture. Anna Ansari brings such warmth and intimacy to her storytelling that I feel invited into her family’s kitchens and travels. The way she weaves together essays, photographs, and recipes makes every dish feel meaningful, not just delicious.

Chosen by Katy, Retail Manager

Question 7 by Richard Flanagan

A genre-defying book, with some autobiography, historical fiction, history and memoir. It spectacularly addresses the impact of colonisation, forced deportations through the penal system, how this affects connection to land and home, and the far-reaching economic and social consequences - the ripples and waves of harm through time. I know so little about the Australian colonisation and felt like I learned so much while being totally gripped by the narratives that unfolded.

Chosen by George, Development Director