Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books, (2017) dj. Hardcover first edition - The author's first novel, nominated for the National Book Award, 2017 and winner of the PEN/Bellweather Prize. "One morning, Deming Guos mother, Polly, an undocumented Chinese immigrant, goes to her job at a nail salonand never comes home. With his mother gone, eleven-year-old Deming is left mystified and bereft. Eventually adopted by a pair of well-meaning white professors, Deming is moved from the Bronx to a small town upstate and renamed Daniel Wilkinson. But far from all hes ever known, Daniel struggles to reconcile his adoptive parents desire that he assimilate with his memories of his mother and the community he left behind. Told from the perspective of both Daniel and Polly, Kos novel gives us one of fictions most singular mothers. Loving and selfish, determined and frightened, Polly is forced to make one heartwrenching choice after another. Set in New York and China, 'The Leavers' is a vivid examination of borders and belonging." The jacket is the first state dust jacket with the Ann Patchett blurb on the front cover: "if you want to understand a forgotten and essential part of the world we live in, 'The Leavers' is required reading. 335 pp. ISBN: 978-1616206888.