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Book Reviewed by:Finalist for the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction.
Named a Best Book of 2017 by NPR, Entertainment Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, BuzzFeed, Bustle, and Electric Literature, Lisa Ko's debut novel is essential reading for our times.
One morning, Deming Guo's mother, an undocumented Chinese immigrant named Polly, goes to her job at the nail salon and never comes home. No one can find any trace of her.
With his mother gone, eleven-year-old Deming is left with no one to care for him. He is eventually adopted by two white college professors who move him from the Bronx to a small town upstate. They rename him Daniel Wilkinson in their efforts to make him over into their version of an "all-American boy." But far away from all he's ever known, Daniel struggles to reconcile his new life with his mother's disappearance and the memories of the family and community he left behind.
Set in New York and China, The Leavers is a vivid and moving examination of borders and belonging. It's the story of how one boy comes into his own when everything he's loved has been taken away - and how a mother learns to live with the mistakes of her past.
This powerful debut is the winner of the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for fiction, awarded by Barbara Kingsolver for a novel that addresses issues of social justice.
PEN/Bellwether Prize
2016
Whatever answers the reader comes to, she will appreciate the beautiful and layered portrayal of these characters, the colorful imagery of the landscape and story, and the wake-up call to the fate of immigrants and adoptees yesterday, today and in the future...continued
Full Review
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(Reviewed by Janet Garber).
In Lisa Ko's The Leavers, one of the female characters is abruptly transported to the fictional Ardsleyville immigration detention center. She is interned in an unheated room with other women, glaring lights on overhead 24/7. She's fed inedible mush, given minimal time outside, and is usually shackled. No attempts are made to secure her legal advice or help her contact her family, and she isn't allowed visitors and doesn't know the whereabouts of her young child. The reader knows her motives, and knows of her hard work ethic and love for her son. She is not a violent criminal – her only crime was hiring a smuggler to sneak her into the country.
The character is fictional. But her plight is true.
Detainment has been a part of ...
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Ann Patchett, author of Commonwealth
“There was a time I would have called Lisa Ko's novel beautifully written, ambitious, and moving, and all of that is true, but it’s more than that now: if you want to understand a forgotten and essential part of the world we live in, The Leavers is required reading.
