New York Times bestselling author, award-winning journalist and well-respected commentator Steven V. Roberts has always been fascinated by his grandparents’ migration to America from the Old World nearly 100 years ago, and he traced their story in his stirring memoir My Fathers’ Houses. Now in FROM EVERY END OF THIS EARTH: 13 Families and the New Lives They Made in America (Harper; On Sale: October 6, 2009; $25.99; Hardcover), he explores the contemporary immigrant experience in all its complexity—an odyssey personified so vividly by President Obama, the son of a Kenyan immigrant father.

FROM EVERY END OF THIS EARTH shares the accounts and voices of 13 families who are following in the footsteps of Roberts’ ancestors. Although much has changed over the past century—the clear majority of legal immigrants entering the United States over the last 20 years are women, Latinos and Asians are the two fastest growing immigrant groups and the number of countries that send people here has skyrocketed—one thing remains the same: Setting out for America is still one of the most courageous journeys that any human being can undertake.

The individuals featured in FROM EVERY END OF THIS EARTH have relocated to the United States from Burma, Pakistan, El Salvador, Sierra Leone, Ukraine and elsewhere for a variety of reasons, among them freedom, opportunity, education and survival. Some traveled here to pursue their dreams. Many fled here to avoid persecution or even death. As one refugee puts it, “I did not come to America on a pleasure trip.”

Despite their many differences, Roberts finds common themes among his subjects who range from a deposed Afghan royal and a former Vietnamese naval officer to a doctor from Mexico and a shoe saleswoman from Rwanda. For first (or “sacrifice”) generation immigrants, the desire to improve their kids’ lives keeps them going, even as they wrestle with the pain of dislocation and the sense of inhabiting two worlds but never feeling completely comfortable in either one. Many retain a connection to their native lands and work to support relatives and communities left behind. In turn, as these reports of struggle, strength and triumph illustrate, being the child of immigrants is a complicated way to grow up, as “generation next” is often pulled between continuing old traditions and forging new identities.

Then there are the other all-too-familiar challenges. Throughout history, immigrants have been demonized for diluting the country’s ethnic heritage, and a pervasive fear of foreigners lurks just below the surface of American life. But as FROM EVERY END OF THIS EARTH reiterates, immigrants have played an essential role in the growth of this nation since its founding and newcomers have always helped fuel the economic prosperity of America while also providing tremendous contributions in science, culture, athletics and more.

Combining candid interviews, extensive research and cogent analysis, FROM EVERY END OF THIS EARTH delivers a thoughtful, nuanced investigation of the modern-day immigrant experience as Steven V. Roberts celebrates the bravery, drive, character and resilience required to start over in the United States—and to weather the hostility directed at foreign-born arrivals that threatens America’s standing as a welcoming haven.