THE LEAVERS: A NOVEL
Book ID/图书代码： 00342516B88989
English Summary/英文概要： The winner of the 2016 PEN / Bellwether Award for Socially Engaged Fiction
Six months pregnant, Peilan Gao borrows $50,000 to have herself smuggled from China into America in a box. Years later, with her son Deming now 10 years old, Peilan is working at a nail salon in New York under terrible conditions, unhappy and restless, contemplating a move to try something new. Deming had been resistant to the idea, as had Peilan’s boyfriend. One morning she leaves for work and doesn’t come back.
With no mother and no means of support, Deming finds himself adopted by a Caucasian family and renamed Daniel Wilkinson, incorporated into a culture nothing like the one he’s known and loved. At the same time, he struggles to understand why his mother would have left him. In alternating chapters, The Leavers follows Deming as he tries to carve out an identity for himself; Peilan’s story as it is revealed; and as the mother and son meet many years later.
Is a child better off being raised by adoptive parents with English fluency and economic privilege, or with his family and culture of origin, despite having fewer educational and financial resources? Drawing links between economic migration, the adoption industry, globalization, and neoliberalism, The Leavers is, as Laila Lalami says, “A rich and sensitive portrait of lives lived across borders, cultures, and languages . . . one of the most engaging, deeply probing, and beautiful books I have read this year.”
Chinese Summary/中文概要： 作为离岸人，一代代移民们离开自己的生地，在外漂泊，被抛掷到一个全然陌生的文化中，他们拥有不同的人生经历和梦想，但是他们无一例外的无法摆脱对故国的思恋和羁绊，他们终其一生苦苦追索家园的意义……“身在异乡为异客”，重新选择的人生该如何继续？心灵的归宿究竟在哪里？
本书的主人 公中国女人郭佩兰和他的儿子郭德明漂泊异国，梦想和心酸，疏离和背叛，怀疑和信任……他们的曲折跌宕的人生经历，正是这些离岸人的缩影，同时透过他们的经历，反映出移民问题的种种复杂性。本书带着我们去探寻，那些离开故国漂泊的人们的心酸故事。(DB)
Awards/获奖情况：【媒体评价】
移民生活的艰辛苦难尽在此书。这是美国梦的另一面。——春树（旅德女作家）
这本书不是一般的族裔流散故事，跨洋移民传说。它照进了大洋彼岸现实的阴暗面，也触及了中国心的敏感点。说到底，这是我们每个人的故事，因为每个人的生命中都有“离开者”，每个人自己都是“离开者”——离开父母，离开家乡，离开自己的既定身份。这部扎实细腻的小说提名美国国家图书奖，在这一意义上，可谓实至名归。——王璞（诗人、学者、美国布兰迪斯大学教授）
这是一个关于美国第一代华裔移民在破碎的现实里寻找归属感的故事。它触及了美国移民的敏感问题，也谈及了爱、梦想和救赎。——吴虹飞（作家、幸福大街乐队主唱）
“在《离岸人》一书中，丽萨•康创造了近年来最勇敢的母亲角色之一。波莉桀骜、勇敢又心碎，看到她的勇猛令人惊叹。《离岸人》是关于父母与孩子之间的羁绊以及众多流离失所之人的故事。它是一本我不忍卒读的书。”——凯特琳•格林尼治，《我们爱你，查理•弗里曼》作者
“一个打动人心的母子之间的故事，为移民文学做出巨大贡献。在描写波莉和她儿子德明时，康捕捉到了一个家庭成为美国人的独特经历……以及第一代移民的疏离和双重意识。”——埃米莉•拉伯托，《寻找锡安》作者
“在我创立先导者奖时，我希望找到并支持那些有勇气针对有风险的、敏感的、具有话题性的主题写作的作者，丽萨•康在《离岸人》一书中正完成了这样的写作。”——芭芭拉•金索沃尔
“以前我会说丽萨•康的小说文笔优美，雄心勃勃，感人肺腑，这些都没错；但是如今我还要说：如果你想了解我们生活的世界中被遗忘的、但又至关重要的一部分，那你必须读读《离岸人》。”——安•帕奇特，《联邦》作者
“雄心勃勃……丽萨•康登上了各大头条，也提醒了我们，头条新闻之外还存在着混乱、勇敢、非凡和平凡的生活。”——《纽约时报》书评
“这是必读的一本书：对归属感和无归属感的意义，生动的虚构性探索……康不遗余力地描绘了打破传统、在异国他乡开始新生活所需要的韧性和勇气。”——《奥普拉杂志》
“一本令人印象深刻的处女作……充满了精巧的、令人心碎的细节，康探索了粗犷的美国移民经历，讲述了一个关于家庭和归属的感人故事。”——《人物》
2016 PEN/BELLWETHER AWARD FOR SOCIALLY ENGAGED FICTION
Editor Kathy Pories writes:
Here’s a little bit about our pick for the Bellwether Prize. (The three judges this year are Laila Lalami, Brando Skyhorse, and myself). It’s the story of a Chinese boy, Deming Gao whose mother works at a nail salon in NY, and one day she goes to work and doesn’t come home. No one can find any trace of her. They have been living with his mother’s boyfriend and her sister and her son, and soon, it’s too expensive for them to take care of Deming without the mother’s income. A hastily arranged adoption is put through and soon Deming finds himself adopted by a white family and renamed Daniel Wilkinson. He’s both reeling from the culture shock and struggling to understand why his mother would have left him. As the novel unspools, we follow both Daniel’s story as he tries to carve out an identity for himself in his adopted white family who means well but is slowly making him over into an American boy; and the story of his mother’s disappearance. Without giving the secrets of the novel away, I can tell you that they are reunited eventually, and it’s heartbreaking and honest and sweet and sad. There isn’t a false note in this novel.
Laila Lalami: "A rich and sensitive portrait of lives lived across borders, cultures, and languages. . . one of the most engaging, deeply probing, and beautiful books I have read this year."
Algonquin has published five previous PEN/Bellwether-winning books, which have sold a combined total of 725,000 copies and been translated into several languages: Mudbound by Hillary Jordan, The Girl Who Fell from the Sky by Heidi Durrow, Running the Rift by Naomi Benaron, Good Kings Bad Kings by Susan Nussbaum, and And West Is West by Ron Childress.
About the Author/作者介绍： 丽莎•康德小说和非小说曾被刊登在《叙述》，《一个青少年故事》，《布鲁克林评论》，《连字符》，《亚洲太平洋美国杂志》等报刊杂志中，她的一个短篇故事还没收录于朱诺•迪亚斯的《美国最佳短篇故事》中。丽萨曾获得纽约艺术基金会，麦道维尔殖民地等协会的奖学金，她还是力吉屋，蓝山中心和萨尔托斯顿基金会的常驻会员。
Format:TRADE PAPERBACK
Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE(到期可授)
Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE
Sales in other countries/其他国家销售情况：Israel (sold to Tamir Sendik)
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