The Leftover Woman by Jean Kwok

THE LEFTOVER WOMAN by Jean Kwok received a starred review from Booklist (“highly recommended”) and was chosen as a LibraryReads selection for October. Another stunning text from an award-winning author, this novel portrays two women who grapple with gender expectations across different cultures. One, Jasmine Yang, is a poor immigrant from China who has come to the US to find her daughter, adopted by an infertile white couple. That wife, Rebecca Whitney, is an editor seeking to prove herself in an industry where her father was well-known and respected. Both need to better define themselves in their roles as wife, mother, artist, worker. In fact, Jasmine contemplates her situation, saying, “Back home, so much of my identity was mirrored through other people's eyes. The village I came from, the school I went to, my family name, those all had meaning in China. Here they stood for nothing -- all those details disappeared when you were an immigrant and suddenly all that was left of you was whatever you carried inside.” Rebecca speaks to an author she is cultivating about “the price of ambition, displacement, and adoption. … themes of motherhood, identity, romantic love, and race…” – all of which are reflected in Kwok’s excellent prose, too. THE LEFTOVER WOMAN is a suspenseful read and the pace moves along as these two women make poor choices and must learn to find the inner strength to deal with the consequences.