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Jun 05, 2017karen3515 rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Set in New York and China, The Leavers, is told from the perspectives of an American born boy and his undocumented Chinese immigrant mother. When young Deming Gou's mother Polly disappears, he is adopted by a caucasian couple who are professors in upstate New York and he is renamed Daniel Wilkinson. In his college years, he is overwhelmed by his struggles with identity, his past, and his abandonment by his mother. As the story unfolds, we discover the tragic circumstances leading to the separation of Polly and Deming. Ko's powerfully written debut novel examines culture, immigration, family, alienation and belonging. The Leavers, is the winner of the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Fiction, awarded by Barbara Kingsolver for a novel that addresses issues of social justice.