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.
From Booklist
Ma turns conventional wisdom about adoption on its head in this probing novel about a young woman adopted from China as an infant. Ari is the kind of person who is abundant in real life but largely missing from fiction: a prickly, selfish, lost girl who can hardly stand the presence of her single mother, an American of Chinese ancestry. Tormented by feelings of abandonment (“the a-word”) and chafed by her mother’s circle’s cheery attempts to connect their adopted children to “their” culture, Ari takes off. She abandons the tour group a friend is leading in China and goes off grid, with harrowing consequences. Fetched back home, she bides her time and leaves for Alaska, in search of an elusive father figure: a man who appears in a photo with Ari as a baby. Ma brings all sorts of relationships—mother-daughter, sister-sister, friend-friend—to vivid life. And she painstakingly conveys that we are never just one thing, and can never be fixed by just one formula. --Lynn Weber
Review
“Kathryn Ma’s first novel is electrified by the enraged tenderness of its alienated young protagonist. Part mystery, part odyssey, The Year She Left Us heralds the arrival of a fierce, subtle new American voice.” (*Jennifer Egan, author of A Visit from the Goon Squad *)
“Ma brings all sorts of relationships-mother-daughter, sister-sister, friend-friend-to vivid life. And she painstakingly conveys that we are never just one thing, and can never be fixed by just one formula.” (Booklist)
“A nuanced take on what it means to be Chinese-American….The novel questions the meaning of family, background and belonging….An impassioned, unapologetic look at tough, interesting subjects.” (Kirkus Reviews)
“A sweeping success-a standout from the many novels about Chinese assimilation and the families of Chinese immigrants-with a fascinating protagonist with a troubling past….This is a family saga of insight, regret, and pathos, and it is not to be missed.” (Publishers Weekly , starred review)
“Full of secrets and obsessed with identity, this story of an adopted Chinese girl comes closer to the complexity of things than any other account I have read. It is moving and well told, and rings perfectly true.” (*Gish Jen, author of World and Town *)
“The characters of Kathryn Ma’s glittering debut novel are complicated, infuriating and hugely sympathetic. I couldn’t wait to find out what they’d do next; I envy readers coming to these pages for the first time.” (*Margot Livesey, author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy *)
“In this provocative tale of a family pulled apart, Kathryn Ma proves herself a powerful storyteller and an astute observer of the complexities of human experience and the perils and possibilities of love.” (Karin Evans, author of The Lost Daughters of China and Not Quite Home)
“With subtle intelligence and wry humor, Kathryn Ma brings us characters whose lives are complicated-in all the best ways-by family, race, immigration, and quirks of personality. These wonderful stories have the resonance of truth even as they make you see the world in new ways.” (*Curtis Sittenfeld on All That Work and Still No Boys *)
“Ma’s stories are layered…there are no good guys, no bad guys, just the deep suffering that ripples through families-the things that everyone knows and no one talks about.” (Los Angeles Times on All That Work and Still No Boys)
“Kathryn Ma is a wonderful writer. Subtle, complex, funny, touching, these stories deliver a world of characters I shall not forget.” (Lynn Freed on All That Work and Still No Boys)