Demming Guo and his mother Polly don't have much time together. Polly came to the United States undocumented and had Demming there, making him a citizen. But she sent him back to China to live with his grandfather when he was one as she didn't have anyone to watch him and had to work to pay back her passage. Demming came back to New York and Polly when he was five after his grandfather died. By then, Polly had given up factory work and was working in a nail salon, living with her boyfriend Leon, his sister Vivian and her son Michael.

Demming had from five to twelve with his mother, the person he adored above all others. Then she started getting antsy and talked about moving them to Florida. When she disappeared, everyone thought she had gone without Demming or telling anyone. Eventually, Vivian signed Demming over to social services and he was adopted by a set of white college professors in New England.

He had lost all track of his mother and had no hope of finding her. He went back to New York only to find Leon, Michael and Vivian gone also from their apartment. Demming grew up being called Daniel by his parents. They wanted him to follow them into an academic career. Demming wanted to play music and went back to the city to play with a friend from high school. Just as they were about to break through, Demming's got into gambling and debt. He lost his friends over money and lost his parents over refusal to do what they wanted.

But he was contacted out of the blue by Michael and eventually found Leon in China and from there he found his mother's number. She had been in China all those years, deported back in an ICE sweep but never contacting Demming as she had no way of finding him. He starts talking with her and the connection is instantaneous across the years. Will he reconnect?

Lisa Ko has written a haunting story of connection and family. What makes a family? Is it the blood connection or is it whoever shows up to take care of a child. Both Demming and Polly are restless souls, constantly moving and changing their lives to try to find a fit. Polly is ambitious and determined to make a life that is comfortable while Demming just wants to find a place to belong. This novel was a National Book Award Finalist and is recommended for readers of literary fiction.

I really enjoyed this powerful story and believe it deserves all the praise! I found the writing accessible, the prose beautiful, and the story compelling.

Thank you to Algonquin books and NetGalley for an advanced copy for an honest review. This book will stay with you for a long time after you read it. The main characters mother doesn’t come home after she leaves for work. She is undocumented and is deported. He struggles throughout his life because of that sudden disappearance. The book spans across multiple continents to tell this story and is written so beautifully. I highly recommend it.

3.5
I found it slow to start and not very interesting, but it defiantly picked up when you start getting more of Polly's story. Not really my type of book to start with either, but I found certain parts very interesting.

This book will not be for everyone, but I thought it was beautifully written. Where do we belong?

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book.

As I age, I am finding that I am becoming extremely picky about the novels I read. I don't seem to enjoy many of them anymore. Usually the first few pages are enough is to inform whether I should continue reading or not. Maybe I need books with older protagonists?

Unfortunately I found that The Leavers is one of those that did not grab me.

Perhaps younger readers would enjoy it.

I don't know why it took me so long to finally read this book. It was absolutely amazing! A heartbreakingly beautiful story. It is going on my all time favorites list. Highly recommend.

Fabulous book for book club as there is so much to discuss. I"m sorry I got to this one so long after release, but glad I got there all the same. I think I was too overloaded with immigrant stories so I read this at the best time.
Deming's story is daunting and one I won't soon forget. Getting a pedicure now will be seen with an entirely different lens. Life is hard and decisions need to made.. There is an impeccable display of love between mother and son. Well done! Links to follow.

I've read several stellar reviews of this novel and I found it interesting, even compelling in the middle, but it just never touched my heart. I'm generally fascinated with immigrants' stories and I did learn more about the true price paid by some Chinese American immigrants, but I wanted to feel more deeply about the mother & son at the center of this story and I never got there.

The Leavers is not my typical genre, but more and more I'm reading outside the box of what I deem to be typical for my reading style (aka thrillers). What The Leavers is though, is a story of love, loss, and bravery. It's a story that speaks about doing what is right and what is easy.

I was particularly drawn to the story in this novel because it talks about what it's like to be an outsider. It shares a story of White privilege and a story of being treated different via microaggressions and political policy.

I am only a minority as a woman, but I was born with the privilege of being White. People of Color face struggles everyday. While I advocate for Black lives, I also advocate for Asian lives, Hispanic lives, Native lives, etc. The Leavers is a story that gives the slightest bit of input on what it's like to not be White in America - and what it's like to be an immigrant caught within the country.

I appreciated getting just the tiniest bit of insight into a life of someone that faces struggles that I do not. While this is a story of fiction, I was moved by this novel and the truth it holds for so many.

One of the things I didn't like about this story was how it jumped around a bit (timeline-wise), which was sometimes confusing for me. I would have to flip back to make sure I was understanding what I was reading and where exactly I was within the story. Additionally, the novel was pretty slow-paced; not necessarily a story full of excitement or very climactic. Regardless, the novel was beautifully written and told a story of bravery. I am glad I read it.

The Leavers is a insightful, timely novel that explores family, identity, immigration, borders and belonging through the eyes of a mother and son who are separated by the violence of US borders. Deming/Daniel is not the prototypical Chinese transracial adoptee, being born in the US and adopted at age 11, but his experiences still reflect those of adoptees in many ways, with the everyday microaggressions from strangers and adoptive parents alike. His sense of identity is complicated not only by his adoption but the trauma of his sudden and unexpected separation from his mother. Peilan/Polly is likewise a complex character, faced with many challenges and choices throughout her life. She struggles to assert her agency in the face of systemic barriers, and her choices have lasting repercussions for herself and for her son. This book peels away the facade of the American Dream and the model minority narrative around Asian immigration and digs deeper, showing the fallacy of equal opportunity and meritocracy.

Deming Guo is an eleven year old boy, living with his mother Polly, in New York City, and they live in a crowded Bronx apartment with Polly's boyfriend, his sister, and his nephew, who is Deming's surrogate brother. Deming's mother is an undocumented Chinese immigrant, and when she goes to her job at a nail salon in the morning, she doesn't return home, leaving Deming Guo with friends of his mother untill she might return. She doesn't, and Deming is adopted by his new American parents Peter and Kay, who move him from the Bronx to a small upstate New York town, they rename him Daniel Wilkinson in their efforts to make him over into their version of an “all-American boy.

Of course he is always questioning where and why his mother went missing, until he is old enough to start a search for himself. During the story, he leaves voicemail messages on his mom's phone, until she someday might hear them, which eventually she does. In the second part of the story, when Deming is a young adult, we find out his mom's side of the story, which leads to China, where she now lives. And then Deming steps on a plane to find his mother and to connect the dots in his mother's disappearance years back.

The Leavers is a novel about a very actual topic; the deportation of undocumented immigrants who are sent back from the USA to their home country, which often leaves their children alone back in the USA while the parents are deported, or the other way around, which happens much now with Cambodian. Mexican, and Central Americans under the Trump administration.
The book is alternating between Deming's point of view in the first half and his mother's at the second half, and some mixed in the end. I found most of the story entertaing and interesting, but at some point the book lacked sleep and was a bit repetitive.
But further on the story was very moving, I love the Chinese culture that is the red line of the book, and also original and different, so if you are in for a book like that, this is the one for you!

The Leavers by Lisa Ko

Summary: Deming, an American-born child of an undocumented Chinese immigrant, is separated from his mother at age 11 and adopted by a loving couple who change his name to Daniel and provide him with an ‘all-American’ life.

Thoughts: There’s lots in this story about what it means to be a mother (interesting to examine this from the child’s perspective) and, sitting alongside Deming/Daniel’s efforts to ‘belong’ and reconcile his cultural differences, it makes for an emotionally complex story. Without spoilers, I think Ko made some aspects of Deming’s adult life unnecessarily hard and these elements were a distraction rather than an enhancement.

Recommended for readers who enjoyed: Ru.

3/5

I received my copy of The Leavers from the publisher, Algonquin Books, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

The Leavers, by Lisa Ko, is an exploration of how choices affect other generations of the family, but in this case, the main catalyst is absence. Deming’s mother, Polly, an undocumented immigrant to the US, leaves for her under-the-table job one day and is never seen again. Her son is eventually adopted by white parents and renamed Daniel, causing a confusing, splintered sense of identity. His adoptive parents aren’t the enemy, they’re loving and supportive, but they aren’t connected to China, to his first family, or to the life Deming remembers. When we see what took Polly away, and the tragic decisions of her life, she’s not the enemy, either. (Even Vivian, who traumatizes young Deming by delivering him to foster care after his mother disappears, isn’t the enemy either.) This is a story of people trying their best, in difficult situations, and ripples of effect from those choices.

I highly recommend this book. It took me about 2-3 days to finish because I couldn't stop putting this book down. I love this book for a few reasons: 1) the chinese representation, 2) the immigration problem that's happening in the usa is very relatable, 3) as i said, i couldn't put it down. I had to read all the way till the end, and when I'd finished I wanted more.

This was absolutely one of the best books I have ever read. Deming was a wonderfully developed character as was his Mom. Heartbreaking!! This is a must read. I couldn’t put it down! Thanks to Nergalley and Algonquin Booksfor the advanced copy. Absolutely wonderful reading!,

This was an amazing book, on a difficult, timely issue. It feels truthful, since it represents many points of view and the complexities of immigration, without candy-coating anything. There are no heroes in this story, and most, if not all of the characters are flawed in some way. There were parts that made me ambivalent when I did not feel empathetic enough — Polly enters the country owing $50,000 to a loan shark and pregnant, which hardly seems like the better life she longs to give her unborn child. When this better life includes a trip for her son back to China to live with family for years, I wondered why she didn't let him stay where he was loved and settled. Instead, her son suffers a return to an unfamiliar land (and parent), and we begin to see that the life Polly imagined for him will only be achieved once she leaves him for good. This new life is far from perfect, and, while Polly's son Deming struggles with his own identity, Ko brings into focus the many small hypocrisies of a privileged white mindset that, despite more liberal leanings, often reinforces old stereotypes.

I don't usually quote other reviews, but I have to agree with this perfect one-sentence blurb from the New York Times Book Review, " Lisa Ko has taken the headlines and has reminded us that beyond them lie messy, brave, extraordinary, ordinary lives.” 

Despite any misgivings I had, this was a moving, though-provoking debut, and sets the bar high for Ko's next work.

For Goodreads:
Why I picked it — I heard good things about the author, and Ko won a social justice award from Barbara Kingsolver - another author I admire.
Reminded me of… some of the themes in Little Fires Everywhere
For my full review — click here

I too often find that books that win major literary awards are not worth reading as they tend to focus on form over story.

That is not the case with Lisa Ko's <em>The Leavers</em>.

Deming Guo, later named Daniel Wilkinson, is searching for his mother. Polly Guo was an undocumented Chinese immigrant who left for work one day at a nail salon and never came back. This book is the story of Deming searching for his birth mother. Despite a good upbringing, he is steadfast in his belief that something must have happened to her - that she wouldn't have simply walked out on him. And it is the story of Polly - her own upbringing, pregnancy, and resolve that her son will have the best she can possibly give him and the later lesson to live with her own mistakes.

The book takes place in both China and New York and author Ko manages to make both of these places a familiar home and a strange land at the same time.

What draws us into this book are the characters - specifically Polly - and Ko's writing. The story is told so simply and so straight-forward that we believe we truly are listening to Polly telling us of her early life in China, and of Deming's life as an 'all-American'. And because we feel a connection to these characters, we sympathize and empathize with them (Polly never asks for sympathy - she's a strong woman and determined and when things go wrong for her, we [and she] believe that she will turn things around).

This is not a world that I would ever understand - not being a mother, not being an immigrant, not being of Asian descent - and yet Ko pulls me into the story in such a way that I do feel as though I understand it. And once there, how can I not be moved by what I understand?

This voice of Ko's reminds me of my early readings of Anne Tyler. In a very similar way, I entered the books as an outsider but left feeling as though I knew the characters extremely well.

This was an enjoyable and recommended read.

Looking for a good book? <em>The Leavers</em> by Lisa Ko is a story of strength, loss, and family and well worth reading.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Lisa Ko’s exceptional debut novel was hand-picked by Barbara Kingsolver for the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, was a finalist for the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction in the States, and is now the launch title for Little, Brown UK’s new imprint, Dialogue Books, which will feature “stories from illuminating voices often excluded from the mainstream,” specifically those “for, about and by readers from the LGBTQI+, disability, working class and BAME communities.” I highly recommend it to fans of Nathan Hill’s The Nix, Atticus Lish’s Preparation for the Next Life and Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere. It’s an ambitious and satisfying novel set in New York and China, with major themes of illegal immigration, searching for a mother and a sense of belonging, and deciding what to take with you from your past.

Eleven-year-old Deming Guo and his mother Peilan (nicknamed “Polly”), an undocumented immigrant, live in New York City with another Fuzhounese family: Leon, Polly’s boyfriend, works in a slaughterhouse, and they share an apartment with his sister Vivian and her son Michael. Deming gets back from school one day to find that his mother never came home from her job at a nail salon. She’d been talking about moving to Florida to work in a restaurant, but how could she just leave him behind with no warning?

Ten years later, Deming is Daniel Wilkinson, adopted and raised in upstate New York by a pair of white professors, Peter and Kay. He’s made a mess of his life with drinking and an addiction to online poker, and has been expelled from college. Now the guitar is his life, but even his best friend and bandmate Roland Fuentes isn’t willing to cut him any slack when he doesn’t show up for rehearsals and performances. Peter and Kay are pulling strings to get Daniel accepted into their college, but he keeps screwing up every chance he’s given. He can only hope his efforts to reconnect with his birth mother will be more successful.

The novel shifts fluidly between a third-person account of our protagonist then (Deming) and now (Daniel) and a first-person confession as Polly explains all: her upbringing in poverty in China, her pregnancy out of wedlock, her illegal entry to the United States, and why she had to leave Deming so suddenly. Polly and Deming/Daniel are vibrant characters, and I ached for their struggles. Both have the sense of being split between lives, of “juggling selves.” Their collective story is about figuring out who you are, what can be made right, and what to leave behind as you move forward in life. It’s such a beautiful novel, and an impressive debut from Lisa Ko.

I enjoyed this book and thought the author had some important things to say about the immigrant experience in the US. The author does an excellent job of creating a satisying and realistic conclusion to a complicated story.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.