Leavers

Description

The Leavers by Lisa Ko – Book Summary

One morning, Deming Guo’s mother, Polly, an undocumented Chinese immigrant, leaves for her job at a New York City nail salon and never returns. She vanishes without a trace, leaving behind unanswered questions and a son who doesn’t know why she disappeared.

With his mother gone, eleven-year-old Deming is left to navigate a world that feels suddenly unrecognizable. He is eventually adopted by two white college professors who move him from the Bronx to a small upstate town. Renamed Daniel Wilkinson, he is pushed into becoming their version of an “all-American boy.” Yet, far away from the vibrant community and culture he once knew, Daniel struggles with identity, loss, and belonging. His new life feels fractured against the memory of his mother and the family he lost.

Spanning both New York and China, The Leavers is a powerful novel about borders, family, and the meaning of home. It explores what happens when everything familiar is taken away—and how resilience and love endure across distance and time.

Winner of the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Fiction, awarded by Barbara Kingsolver, this moving debut novel confronts issues of immigration, social justice, and identity with extraordinary empathy and heart.