Lisa Ko’s debut novel, The Leavers, tells the story of Deming Guo. He is a young boy born to Chinese immigrants in 1990s New York City. When his mother Polly disappears one day, Deming is forced to move in with his father. Who abandoned Polly and their family when Deming was just an infant. While Mr. and Mrs. Guo is hardly ideal parents, they treat Deming well and make the most of their life together until Mr. Guo disappears one day as well – leaving Deming an orphan with few clues about where he might have gone and who he is.
Overview About “The Leavers” by “Lisa Ko”
The Leavers follows Deming Guo, a toddler. When his mother, Polly, is taken away one night by two plainclothes police officers. After a judge gives custody of Deming to an immigrant couple in New York City. The only home he’s ever known as an American. His mother tries to fight for him through immigration and family court. As he grows older, Deming struggles with questions of identity, sexuality, and race. Polly searches for him in China but finds herself caught up in issues of parental kidnapping and bureaucratic gridlock.
Reviews About “The Leavers” by “Lisa Ko”
The debut novel from Lisa Ko is one of those books that make you stare at your hands in disbelief after you’ve read it. The narrator, Deming Guo, is a five-year-old Chinese American boy whose mother is taken away to a detention center when he is just five years old. He goes from living with his family in Queens to being placed in foster care and adopted by two white professors on Long Island—and it turns out to be one of the most poignant stories I’ve ever read. It also might be too much for some readers—the book unspools in an easy style but digs deep into heavy topics like racism, adoption, and immigration without flinching.
About “Lisa Ko” the author of “The Leavers”
Lisa Ko has worked at a public radio station, a homeless shelter, an ice cream shop, and a law firm. She is now an MFA candidate at Rutgers University-Newark. Her fiction has appeared in The Washington Post, Ninth Letter, Guernica Magazine, and elsewhere. She is also a recipient of fellowships from The MacDowell Colony and Stanford’s Clay Felker Magazine Fellowship in Fiction. The Leavers was born out of her experiences growing up as one of three children born to Chinese immigrants in New York City public housing. It chronicles a boy named Deming Gao’s journey from toddlerhood to young adulthood as he moves from being raised by his mother on welfare to living with his father on the other side of America in Queens.
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