The Leavers

The Leavers, author Lisa Ko's debut novel, won the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. Inspired by a 2009 New York Times article about an undocumented Chinese woman held in predominantly solitary detention for 18 months, The Leavers tells the coming-of-age tale of Deming Guo/Daniel Wilkinson’s loss and eventual reconciliation with his birth mother, Polly Guo. In his journey to find his mother, Daniel learns of Polly’s challenges and comes to terms with his own hybrid identity as both Daniel and Deming, finding his place in New York City. Ko's novel, originally published in 2017, addresses themes of social injustice and immigration.

The novel begins with the day 10-year-old Deming sees his mother for the last time. When Deming’s mother discusses them moving to Florida, Deming isn’t happy about the prospect, content living in the Bronx—with Leon, his mother’s boyfriend; Leon’s sister, Vivian; and Vivian’s son, Michael—despite their poverty. The next day, Polly doesn’t come home. Leon and Vivian tell him she’s going to be away for a few days, but Polly doesn’t return. With her departure, Leon and Vivian have difficulties supporting the family. The situation worsens even more when Leon leaves for China. Since Vivian cannot support Michael and Deming, she decides to give Deming up for adoption.

Deming is taken in by Peter and Kay Wilkinson, a white couple who bring him to live with them at Ridgeborough in upstate New York, where they teach at Carlough College. At Ridgeborough, Deming, now Daniel, feels alienated by his white peers. To fight his alienation and the loss of his culture, Deming imagines he is on a mission at Ridgeborough from another planet. This fantasy endures for months after Peter and Kay take him to New York City to meet their friends Jay and Elaine Hennings, as well as the Hennings’ adopted Chinese daughter, Angel. Deming goes with Angel one night to try to find his family at his old apartment in the Bronx, but a new family has moved there.

Gradually, Deming starts thinking of himself as Daniel and adapting to life at Ridgeborough. He becomes interested in music, gravitating to Roland Fuentes, another outsider. He and Roland start a band, but Daniel feels overshadowed by him. When Kay and Peter insist that he go to college, Daniel chooses a different college from where his adoptive parents work and where he can be known separately from Roland. At college however, Daniel falls into online gambling. He borrows money from Angel, telling her he’ll pay her back, but cannot do so. Expelled from school, Daniel moves to New York City, a decision his adoptive parents disapprove of. When they visit, they insist Daniel fill out an application for Carlough. Daniel agrees to bring the application to the Hennings’ party where he will see them next.

While in New York, Daniel is contacted by Michael, who tells him he has more information about his mother. Michael also invites him to meet up with Vivian. Angry, Daniel confronts her about giving him up for adoption. Vivian tells him she paid Polly’s debts and knows Polly’s alive because she’s talked to Leon. She passes Daniel Leon’s number in China. That same night, Daniel calls Leon, who gives him his mother’s number, but Daniel decides not to call his mother right away out of fear she’ll reject him. At the Hennings’ party, he tries to apologize to Angel for the money he borrowed from her, which he remains unable to pay back, but she reacts with anger. His parents are also upset at Daniel for handing them the wrong application to Carlough. Seeing that he has disappointed so many people around him, Daniel decides to gamble the last of his money in a poker game. After losing all his money, Daniel calls his mother, leaving a message with his name and number.

Roland and Daniel’s band continues gathering acclaim, but Daniel feels dissatisfied with how he perceives Roland changing the music to make it more marketable. Polly doesn’t return his call, and Daniel calls her again and reaches her. He struggles with his anger at his mother leaving him and the realization that his mother is hiding him from her husband. Meanwhile, Roland drops him from the band. Daniel returns to Ridgeborough to complete the summer session Peter and Kay want him to do but sabotages himself by playing online poker again. When his adoptive parents find out, he leaves for Fuzhou and searches for his mother. He finds her at a conference in Beijing and has a chance to hear her side of the story.

For the last few years, Polly has been living in Fuzhou and working as an English teacher. She’s married to Yong Lin, a business man, which has given her the security she craved. Polly narrates her own childhood growing up in Minjiang as Peilan, being raised alone by her fisherman father. Her desire not to be limited by her conditions leads her to leave the village in search for work. In wanting to feel like an adult, she sleeps with a boy from her village and ends up pregnant. Peilan tries to abort the pregnancy but finds herself stymied at every turn by her status as an unmarried, poor, rural migrant. Out of options, Peilan goes to the US, taking on the name “Polly” and a large debt she will have to clear through her work there. The beginning of her time in the U.S. is stressful, but Polly feels freed from the limitations she has faced in China.

Life in New York presents a constant challenge for Polly. She tries to have an abortion but is too far along and decides she wants the child. Motherhood in Polly’s situation is increasingly fraught by concerns over her finances, her need to work long hours at a factory to pay off her debt, along with her worry over Deming. She sends Deming to live with his grandfather, with whom Deming stays until his grandfather dies. Polly meets Leon shortly before Deming returns. She moves in with Leon soon after, along with Vivian and Michael. Her life gains more stability, but Polly, who now works at a nail salon, worries about the future for her and Deming, with all the adults working menial low-paying jobs, and feels restlessness. She ponders a job opportunity as a waitress in Florida, but Leon rejects it.

The day after, ICE rounds up the women at Polly’s salon and Polly is taken to Ardsleyville, Texas. Polly spends 14 months detained under horrific conditions, part of them under solitary confinement, tortured by the thought that Deming would think she abandoned him. When she is at last deported to China, she finds work and tries to get in touch with Leon. He finds her six months after and tells her that Deming has been given over for adoption, devastating Polly. He offers to stay with her, but by then Leon has a wife and a child, and Polly tells him to go. Afterwards, Polly finds a job teaching English and meets Yong.

After their reconciliation, Daniel spends four months in Fuzhou, living with his mother and Yong and teaching English. While she wants him to stay, Daniel still feels like he doesn’t belong in Fuzhou and returns to the U.S. He reconciles with Peter and Kay but returns to New York City where he moves in with Michael, teaching music and playing his own songs. He also continues paying Angel back, which begins to mend their friendship. Daniel finds himself more at ease with his life than he ever has. His decision to leave Fuzhou prompts Polly to leave her life, which she has started to find stifling, for a new life in Hong Kong.