The Leavers Audiobook By Lisa Ko cover art

The Leavers

A Novel

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The Leavers

By: Lisa Ko
Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
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Buy for $22.81

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One morning, Deming Guo's mother, an undocumented Chinese immigrant named Polly, goes to her job at the nail salon and never comes home. No one can find any trace of her. With his mother gone, 11-year-old Deming is left with no one to care for him. He is eventually adopted by two white college professors who move him from the Bronx to a small town upstate. They rename him Daniel Wilkinson in their efforts to make him over into their version of an "all-American boy". But far away from all he's ever known, Daniel struggles to reconcile his new life with his mother's disappearance and the memories of the family and community he left behind. Set in New York and China, The Leavers is a vivid and moving examination of borders and belonging. It's the story of how one boy comes into his own when everything he's loved has been taken away - and how a mother learns to live with the mistakes of her past.

©2017 Lisa Ko (P)2017 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books Coming of Age Literary Fiction United States Heartfelt World Literature Genre Fiction Historical Fiction
Beautifully Written Story • Nuanced Character Development • Emotional Depth • Thought-provoking Themes

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Great performance and a great book! Learned how to pronounce some Chinese words from it as well.

The book itself is a good example of the power of books to show us different lives and experiences. I could never claim to know Chinese American culture after reading this, but it did manage to broaden my understanding just a bit.

Ko is a wonderful writer also. She strings together words with a deft yet warm precision.

Great book and solid performance!

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You will experience all sorts of mixed emotions..angry, sad, unforgiving, forgiveness. resolution, to the characters awaking to be be oneself.

Mind-Boggling Intensity of Life

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In Audible form, it was hard to keep track of how the story jumped and ooped around back and forth but it kept me interested enough to back up and relisten when necessary.

As the daughter of an immigrant from Japan, I felt the pain and frustration of Deming and his mother. Some characters were too one-dimensional but served their purpose.

Looking forward to reading the next Lisa Ko novel.

Life is complicated

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Is there anything you would change about this book?

The Narrator

Was The Leavers worth the listening time?

Debatable

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The story was a slow starter but became more interesting as it unfolded. The narration was a huge detractor - women are read in tense voices ever on the verge of anxious hysteria and men are read in cartoonish voices. Might be better enjoyed the old fashioned way.

Narration Off-Putting

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The story held my attention, and when the characters are sad or happy, I felt the same. I felt the author wrote the story realistically, and the narrator’s tones draw me into the book.

It’s an excellent read

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