Fabulous Fiction Firsts #638

REVIEW WRITTEN WORD


Two debuts that join the heated national conversations about deportation of illegal immigrants; the global concerns for refugees fleeing war-torn countries; and issues of identity and alienation that would likely affect generations to come.

The 2016 winner of the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Fiction and a May 2017 LibraryReads pick, The Leavers * * by Lisa Ko is based on true stories. It "depicts the heart- and spirit-breaking difficulties faced by illegal immigrants with meticulous specificity." (Kirkus Reviews)

21-year-old Daniel Wilkinson is back in the city having dropped out of college. Directionless, he is couch-surfing, serving in a fast-food joint and working on his music, his only passion. Then, Michael, his boyhood friend reaches out to him through social media, claiming to have information about Daniel's mother.

A decade ago, on a February morning, Peilan (Polly) Guo left her 11-year-old son Deming in a shared apartment in the Bronx, went to work in a nail salon and never returned. Deming was put into foster care, and eventually adopted by Kay and Peter Wilkinson, a couple of college professors in upstate New York, who named him Daniel.

As Daniel learns that his missing mother is alive, the narration is taken over by Polly, who recounts her journey to America as an unwed pregnant teenager, the low-paying jobs, the hardship endured, and the decision to send Deming back to China to be raised by her elderly father until he was 6. Set in New York and China, The Leavers is a vivid examination of borders and belonging. It’s a moving story of how a boy comes into his own when everything he loves is taken away, and how a mother learns to live with the mistakes of the past.

"Readers who enjoy thoughtfully told relationship tales by authors such as Lisa See, Jamie Ford, and Nadia Hashimi will appreciate." (Library Journal)

Descended from a large Palestinian family, Hala Alyan is an award-winning poet, accomplished performer, and clinical psychologist. Salt Houses * *, her debut novel, is informed by personal experiences and her work with immigrants and survivors of torture. Check out her interview with NPR.

This novel tracks the dispersal of four generations of a Palestinian family, the Yacoubs over five decades. Salma and Hussam were forced to leave their idyllic home and orange grove when Israeli tanks bulldozed through their home in Jaffa. Settled in Nablus, they raised their family but on the eve of her youngest daughter Alia’s wedding, Salma was asked to read the girl’s future in a cup of coffee dregs. What she saw, she kept from Alia. But soon enough, the family was uprooted in the wake of the Six-Day War. While Alia and elder sister Widad relocated to Kuwait with their families, Salma, now a widow, moved to Jordan to be closer to her sister and mourn the loss of her only son, Mustafa.

When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, the families scattered once more -- to Beirut, Paris, Boston, and beyond. "The Yacoubs are fortunate. Not relegated to refugee camps, they have the wherewithal to fashion new lives for themselves. Still, Alyan makes it abundantly clear how displaced persons, separated from their culture, their religion, and their homeland, are forever altered." (Library Journal)

* * = 2 starred reviews

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