5/20/2023 0 Comments The leavers novel![]() Ko is similar to Franzen in her fearlessness of presenting protagonists who are far from sympathetic at times. The human need to be wanted is at the centre of this beautifully written novel, whose clarity of expression and command of voice invoke the work of a more established author – the immigrant family experience in the writing of Julia Alvarez, and the brutal reality of relationships, particularly parental bonds, in Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections. The Leavers unfolds through the eyes of Deming, now Daniel, as he drops out of college and returns to live in New York to ostensibly further his music dreams, but really to find out more about his mother and, in turn, himself. When Polly doesn't return, Deming is put up for adoption and finds himself plucked from his life in the city to live in a small town in upstate New York with two American lecturers, Kay and Peter – his new Mom and Dad. ![]() ![]() For months he carries on living in a tiny apartment with his mother's boyfriend, Leon, Leon's sister Vivian and her son Michael. Deming Guo is an 11-year-old Bronx native whose mother, Polly, disappears one day without a trace. ![]() I decided: I wanted you." At the heart of Lisa Ko's stunning debut novel The Leavers is a mother-son relationship rent apart by the cruel conditions forced upon undocumented immigrants. "I want you to know that you were wanted. ![]()
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