The Year She Left Us

From the winner of the 2009 Iowa Short Fiction Prize--comes the extraordinary, unexpected debut tale of three generations of Chinese-American women in a San Francisco family who must confront their past and carve out a future.

The Kong women are in crisis. A disastrous trip to visit her "home" orphanage in China has plunged eighteen-year-old Ari into a self-destructive spiral. Her adoptive mother, Charlie, a lawyer with a great heart, is desperate to keep her daughter safe. Meanwhile, Charlie must endure the prickly scrutiny of her beautiful, Bryn Mawr educated mother, Gran--who, as the daughter of a cultured Chinese doctor, came to America to survive Mao's Revolution--and her sister, Les, a brilliant judge with a penchant to rule over everyone's lives.

As they cope with Ari's journey of discovery and its aftermath, the Kong women will come face to face with the truths of their lives--four powerful intertwining stories of accomplishment, tenacity, secrets, loneliness, and love. Beautifully illuminating the bonds of family and blood, The Year She Left Us explores the promise and pain of adoption, the price of assimilation and achievement, the debt we owe to others, and what we owe ourselves.

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Harper
Published: 05/13/2014
ISBN: 9780062273345
Pages: 336
Weight: 1.05lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.00w x 1.30d

Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 03/24/2014
Romantic Times 05/01/2014 pg. 40 - Excellent
Booklist 05/01/2014 pg. 81
Shelf Awareness 05/16/2014
Kirkus Reviews 05/01/2014
New York Times Book Review 07/13/2014 pg. 9
New York Times Book Review 07/20/2014 pg. 30