{{short description|2017 debut novel by Lisa Ko}} {{italic title}} {{Use American English|date=December 2024}} {{Use mdy dates|date=December 2024}} {{Infobox book | italic title = <!--(see above)--> | image = The Leavers.jpg | image_size = | caption = First edition cover | author = Lisa Ko | audio_read_by = Emily Woo Zeller | cover_artist = | country = United States | genre = {{Hlist|Bildungsroman}} | set_in = | publisher = Algonquin Books | pub_date = May 2, 2017 | media_type = {{Unbulleted list|Print (hardcover)|Print (paperback)|Digital (ebook)|Digital (audiobook)}} | pages = 338 pp. <br>(hardcover 1st ed) | awards = {{Unbulleted list|PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://pen.org/2016-pen-bellwether-prize/ |title=2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction |access-date=2024-07-23 |website=PEN America}}</ref>|Asian/Pacific American Awards for Literature, Adult Fiction<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.apalaweb.org/awards/literature-awards/winners/2017-2018-awards-winners/ |title=2017-2018 Awards Winners |access-date=2024-07-23 |website=Asian Pacific American Librarians Association}}</ref>}} | isbn = 9781616206888 | isbn_note = | oclc = 953599445 | dewey = | congress = PS3611.O135 L43 2017 | native_wikisource = | wikisource = | notes = | website = http://lisa-ko.com/theleavers }}
'''''The Leavers''''' is Lisa Ko's first novel published on May 2, 2017, by Algonquin Books.
==Background== Ko's novel was inspired by a 2009 article in ''The New York Times'' describing an undocumented immigrant from Fuzhou, China, who was arrested at a Greyhound station in Florida on her way to a new job and spent a year and a half in detention.<ref>{{Cite web|title='The Leavers' Is a Wrenching Tale of Parenthood|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/05/lisa-ko-the-leavers-book-review/526179/|last=Weiss-Meyer|first=Amy|date=2017-05-14|website=The Atlantic|language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-04}}</ref>
== Plot == Told in four parts, the novel begins as Deming Guo's mother Polly suddenly disappears from the family's New York City apartment without warning. Deming is placed into foster care, ultimately to be adopted by a suburban couple, Kay and Peter. Five hours away from the city in Ridgeburough, Deming Guo becomes Daniel Wilkinson. Deming/Daniel searches for a sense of connection, belonging, and identity in a new home with a new family.
Part II introduces Polly's story.
== Reception == Writing for ''The New York Times'', Gish Jen praised the novel for taking the headline-news of immigration and "remind[ing] us that beyond [that] lie messy, brave, extraordinary, ordinary lives."<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|last=Jen|first=Gish|date=2017-05-16|title=Migration, a Makeshift Family, and Then a Disappearance|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/16/books/review/the-leavers-by-lisa-ko.html|access-date=2020-05-04|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> At the same time, Jen felt the prose was overly expository and that some conservative plot points mark "this book as one that takes risks but then hedges its bets."<ref name=":0" />
Reviewing the novel for ''The Guardian'', Arifa Akbar felt: "''The Leavers'' ... themes of displacement and deportation carry deep and desperately urgent resonances far beyond America, and fiction. Ko movingly captures Polly and Deming's liminal presence in the immigrant community, on the margins of society in overcrowded apartments, in nail parlours and factories, who are always there yet invisible to the rest of us."<ref>{{Cite news|last=Akbar|first=Arifa|date=2018-04-22|title=The Leavers by Lisa Ko review – quietly sensational story of migrants' plight|language=en-GB|newspaper=The Observer|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/22/leavers-lisa-ko-review-migrants-debut-chinese-american|access-date=2020-05-04|issn=0029-7712}}</ref>
== Awards == ''The Leavers'' received the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction and a nomination for National Book Award for Fiction.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Leavers|url=https://www.nationalbook.org/books/the-leavers/|website=National Book Foundation|language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-04}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable sortable" !Year !Award !Category !Result !Ref. |- !2016 |PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction |— |{{Won}} |<ref>{{Cite web |last=kanopi_admin |date=2016-02-23 |title=2016 PEN Literary Award Winners |url=https://pen.org/2016-pen-literary-award-winners/ |access-date=2024-12-04 |website=PEN America |language=en-US}}</ref> |- ! rowspan="3" |2017 |Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature |Adult Fiction |{{Won}} |<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-02-11 |title=2017-2018 AWARDS WINNERS – APALA |url=https://www.apalaweb.org/2017-2018-awards-winners/ |access-date=2024-12-04 |language=en-US}}</ref> |- |Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award |Fiction |{{Sho}} |<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mangan |first=Christine |title=Shelf Awareness for Thursday, March 8, 2018 |url=https://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=3200 |access-date=2024-12-04 |website=www.shelf-awareness.com}}</ref> |- |National Book Award |Fiction |{{Sho}} |<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lisa Ko |url=https://www.nationalbook.org/people/lisa-ko/ |access-date=2024-12-04 |website=National Book Foundation |language=en-US}}</ref> |- ! rowspan="3" |2018 |Aspen Words Literary Prize |— |{{Nominated|Longlisted}} |<ref>{{Cite web |last=Travers |first=Andrew |date=2017-12-12 |title=Aspen Words announces longlist for new literary prize, faculty for Summer Words |url=https://www.aspentimes.com/entertainment/aspen-words-announces-longlist-for-new-literary-prize-faculty-for-summer-words/ |access-date=2024-12-04 |website=www.aspentimes.com |language=en-US}}</ref> |- |New York City Book Awards Hornblower Award for First Book |— |{{Won}} |<ref>{{Cite web |title=The 2017-2018 New York City Book Awards {{!}} The New York Society Library |url=https://www.nysoclib.org/2017-2018-new-york-city-book-awards |access-date=2024-12-04 |website=www.nysoclib.org}}</ref> |- |PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel |— |{{Sho}} |<ref>{{Cite web |last=Johnson |first=Kirk Wallace |title=Shelf Awareness for Monday, April 2, 2018 |url=https://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=3218 |access-date=2024-12-04 |website=www.shelf-awareness.com}}</ref> |- !2019 |International Dublin Literary Award |— |{{Nominated|Longlisted}} |<ref>{{Cite web |last=IGO |date=2019-09-03 |title=The Leavers |url=https://dublinliteraryaward.ie/the-library/books/the-leavers/ |access-date=2024-12-04 |website=Dublin Literary Award |language=en-US}}</ref> |}
== References == {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Leavers, The}} Category:2017 debut novels Category:2017 American novels Category:2017 English-language novels Category:American bildungsromans Category:Novels about immigration Category:Algonquin Books books