He calls it Planet Ridgeborough and attempts to convince himself that he'll only be a temporary resident.

Meanwhile, his adoptive parents change his name to Daniel Wilkinson and try to make him over into a different boy in order to help him 'fit in.' To cope with this dislocation, Deming tries to see his new town through an anthropological lens, studying the inhabitants like they study him. He's bereft, confused, missing his mom, and wondering where she is. Left with no one to take care of him, he is adopted by a white couple who move him from the Bronx to a small town called Ridgeborough, where he's the only Asian person. The Only Ones, 'Another Girl, Another Planet'Įleven-year-old Deming Guo's mother Polly, a Chinese immigrant, goes to work one day and never comes home.

Now, when writing, I'll sometimes listen to music to help access a particular time or emotion. Long before I was a novelist, back when cassette was king, I was a dedicated mixtape maker, plotting out playlists like I'd later plot out scenes and narrative arcs. Deming, one of the novel's main characters, is a musician. Music has been such a huge part of my life, my writing, and The Leavers. In her own words, here is Lisa Ko's Book Notes music playlist for her debut novel The Leavers: 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.' '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. Longlisted for the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction and winner of the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Award for Socially Engaged Fiction, Lisa Ko's debut novel The Leavers is a powerful and timely look at the immigrant experience, and one of the year's most profound works of fiction.

Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Amy Bloom, Aimee Bender, Jesmyn Ward, Heidi Julavits, Hari Kunzru, and many others. Previous contributors include Bret Easton Ellis, Kate Christensen, Lauren Groff, T.C. In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.

The leavers book review