Media Reviews

O, The Oprah Magazine (Favorite Books of 2017) Here is imperative reading: a vivid fictional exploration of what it means to belong and what it feels like when you don't ... Ko gives us an unsparing portrait of the resilience and grit it takes to risk everything to break free of tradition and start over in a foreign land.

People (Book of the Week) "[A] dazzling debut ... Filled with exquisite, heartrending details, Ko's exploration of the often-brutal immigrant experience in America is a moving tale of family and belonging.

Entertainment Weekly When Deming Guo was 11, his Chinese immigrant mother, Polly, left for work at a nail salon and never returned. In alternating perspectives, this heart-wrenching literary debut tells both of their stories. Grade: A

New York Times Book Review Ambitious ... Lisa Ko has taken the headlines and has reminded us that beyond them lie messy, brave, extraordinary, ordinary lives.

Janet Maslin, New York Times This wrenching and all-too-topical debut novel picks up the life of an 11-year-old American-born boy on the day his mother, an undocumented Chinese immigrant, disappears ... Ko uses the voices of both the boy and his birth mother to tell a story that unfolds in graceful, realistic fashion and defies expectations.

Booklist Though obviously skillfully written - it's a winner of the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction - the book can sometimes be difficult to read, thanks to its bleak subject matter, which, nevertheless, is reflective of today's reality. Those who are interested in closely observed, character-driven fiction will want to leave room for The Leavers on their shelves.

Publishers Weekly Starred Review. Ko's stunning tale of love and loyalty - to family, to country - is a fresh and moving look at the immigrant experience in America, and is as timely as ever.

Library Journal Starred Review. Ko's writing is strong, and her characters, whether major or minor, are skillfully developed. Readers who enjoy thoughtfully told relationship tales by authors such as Lisa See, Jamie Ford, and Nadia Hashimi will appreciate.

Kirkus Reviews This timely novel depicts the heart- and spirit-breaking difficulties faced by illegal immigrants with meticulous specificity.

 Barbara Kingsolver The Leavers is courageous, sensitive, and perfectly of this moment.

 Kaitlyn Greenidge, author of We Love You, Charlie Freeman The Leavers is about the bonds between parents and children and the many pulls of home. It was a book I did not want to end.

 Emily Raboteau, author of Searching for Zion In writing about Polly and her son Deming, Ko captures one family's unique experience of becoming American while also exposing the loss of status, economic desperation, physical endangerment, and psychological grit of the undocumented worker as well as the alienation, double consciousness, mobility, and comparative access of the first generation.

 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.

Reader Reviews

Books with similar themes

• Novels
  
• Mid-Atlantic
  
• NY State
  
• China
  
• 20th Century (multiple decades)
  
• Debuts
  
• Parenting & Families (fiction & nonfiction)
  
• Coming of Age
  
• Dealing with Loss
  
• Immigrants & Expatriates
  
• Asian Writers
  
• Strong Female Leads