I couldn't put this one down--read it on a six hour flight! Kwok manages to explore so many themes, including motherhood, immigration, class, wealth, culture, family, trust, commitment, love, and secrets in what is essentially a mystery with a dramatic and satisfying climax. A recommended read!

Kwok certainly brings a great deal to the table with The Leftover Woman. First of all, I want to state that I learned a great deal from this novel. Different terms and references had me scurrying to Google to find information e.g. Snakeheads. That being said, personally, I felt there were gaps in the story. I had a difficult time connecting to the characters because I didn't have a depth of understanding to develop the empathy the author was cultivating. Honestly, I would rate this novel at a 3.5. Quality writing. Excellent pacing, but I believe the story needed more context before leaping to the situation at hand.

This novel will capture the hearts of many women readers. If you're in a book discussion group, you will want to make sure your group considers this one. It's rich in suspense and emotion and themes that will keep a group talking long past the allotted time. The conflict between two mothers -- one natural, whose baby girl was taken from her at birth during China's extreme one-baby era, and the other adoptive, who has given her young daughter the deepest love -- raises many questions about the meaning of motherhood and what is ultimately best for the child.

This book explores motherhood, racism, classism and immigration, as well as abusive relationships. I think a lot of my students would have a lot to learn and discuss with this book. As a reader, I found one of the main characters to be very one dimensional and mainly used as an example of what not to be and a way to teach the lessons of the book. This didn't work for me as a reader, but I get the intention

This book officially puts me in the Jean Kwok fan club. While I enjoyed both Girls in Translation and Searching for Sylvia Lee, I enjoyed this book about 10 times more! The twists and turns in this book are unforgettable.- they are unpredictable but not outrageous to the senses. Very interesting storyline with a broad cast of characters that are rarely put together in any one book.
Thank you NetGalley for an ARC.

This was an amazing book. 5 stars!
This book tackles privilege, motherhood and culture beautifully and realistically.
I gasped out loud when half way through the plot took a dramatic turn.

A moving novel about race, inequality, relationships, and motherhood. Kwok has written a magnificent book that begs to be read in many layers. It is, in a word, a masterpiece. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to be an early reader in exchange for my review.

I received this ARC from NetGalley and Harper Collins Publishers for an impartial review. This is an outstanding story about an illegal immigrant from China, Jasmine , and a wealthy American couple, Brandon and Rebecca. The chapters alternate between Jasmine and Rebecca. Jasmine escapes from an abusive “husband” and enters America with no legal documentation and owing a lot of money to the gang leader who helped her escape. Rebecca and Brandon adopt a newborn baby girl from China and hire Jasmine as FiFi’s nanny. The story is a real eye opener about how some illegal Chinese women worked and supported themselves. There are a lot of plot twists that keep the reader intrigued and anxious to continue reading to the end.

Jasine Yang has left her life in China behind. There she had no voice and a choice her husband made sends her to New York to reclaim what was taken from her. But it’s not an easy life with no money, no papers, and her desperate attempt to secure a job, any job.
Rebecca Whitney comes from wealth. She is at the top of her game, career wise, with a wonderful husband and their adopted daughter. But one huge mistake at work seems to be the first crack in her perfect life. Soon, she isn’t sure if she can trust her husband and their daughter’s nanny, Lucy seems to be hiding something too.
Each of these women are determined to succeed, but Jasmine will do anything to get back what she has lost. There’s a twist that totally surprised me, which is really hard to do. Such a gut wrenching story, and one that kept me glued to my Kindle, hoping somehow there would be a happy ending for Jasmine and Rebecca.

"A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song." (Chinese Proverb)

It's the lyrics of life that motivate us. Jasmine Yang does not possess a dynamic plan. All she knows is that in leaving her small village in China, she's pushed forward to a new existence. She can't return to the chaos and fear of her former life. It's here in New York City that she must make a go of things.

Jasmine paid the snakeheads to arrange her illegal passage to America. She's now in debt to them. Money and a job will be hard to come by without legal papers. But while begging for a job in a small Chinese restaurant, Jasmine meets Dawn. Dawn gives her the name of Opium, an Asian strip club. Desperate and without any other options, Jasmine coaxes the owner to hire her. Night by night, Jasmine toughens herself to pass the hours with the final goal of her own freedom. But that freedom may be in jeopardy.

Across town in Manhattan, we'll meet a family. Rebecca, mother and wife and highly successful editor, tries to balance a hectic life. Her husband, Brandon, is a professor of Asian Studies at Columbia University. But at the core is their five year old adopted Chinese daughter., Fiona known as Fifi. Fifi will steal your heart away throughout this book. Rebecca hired Lucy, a Chinese young woman, to be their nanny. Brandon speaks fluent Chinese and wishes Fifi to grow up with both English and Chinese. Lucy tends to be a bit clumsy and off-track, but Fifi adores her.

Jean Kwok circles a caravan around women in this novel. Each female is motivated by a powerful energy source of rising above the demands of life. Rebecca and her group bounce back and forth from motherhood, careers, and children and outside activities and private schools. Jasmine is on the precipice of survival 24/7. She runs on lack of sleep and artificial motivation.

But there will be a string of incidents that will force these women to cross pathways. Something from Jasmine's past life and something from Rebecca's current life will threaten to shift this house of cards to destruction.

Jean Kwok is a master of carving out characters. She digs deep below the surface. We'll find backstories on these women that will keep the heart pumping and the storyline shifting. And there will be a complete somersault of a twist within these pages that you won't see coming. Emotions will rise to the surface, but a solid game plan will set this one up as a favorite of 2023.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to William Morrow and to the talented Jean Kwok for the opportunity.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. I feel incredibly lucky to have the chance to be an early reader for this book as I really enjoyed it and found it thought-provoking and meaningful.

The two main characters in this story are different in many ways (culture, education, socioeconomic status, power) but both exhibit the strength of a mother's love, as well as the doubts and uncertainty inherent in motherhood. The experience of being an immigrant, and how one is perceived as a different person in different settings, is woven through the story. There are so many complicated themes that are handled with sensitivity and different perspectives are given room to breathe and develop throughout.

I highly recommend this beautiful story.

What a fascinating, intriguing story!
Jasmine escapes from her Chinese village to the US to hide from her controlling, domineering husband in the hope of obtaining a special nanny position she learned of in her Chinese paper before leaving her country.
This will allow Jasmine to find and care for her biological daughter who was taken and given away by her husband, simply because she is a female.
Jasmine has no money, papers or friends, and is in huge debt. Her English is very limited.
How will she make enough money to survive? Can she do it? What is her ultimate goal?

This novel is told by Jasmine and alternating with the adoptive mother Rebecca. Rebecca is a wonderful mother who wants the best for her daughter and will stop at nothing to provide for her.
It is well done, and intense with suspense and incredible twists.
There is no doubt that anyone who opens this book will enjoy it!
Thank you to @Netgalley and to @William Morrow for this ARC and allowing me to read and provide my own review.

This one unfolds like a beautiful flower. When all the pieces come together it’s odd how it seems to be a realization to the characters not the reader. It almost felt like I (reader) was the puppet master! Took on a different style for me. One thing I enjoyed was how race issues were woven thru the story making an impact but not overtaking the story. I also enjoyed the notice to detail when Jasmine speaks in English versus her native tongue. Solid read!

I think this may be a case of right book, wrong reader. I’ll start with the good: this book shines a direct light on the very complicated issue of transracial adoption, specifically from China in the early 2000s here. I appreciate that Jean Kwok goes at this issue head on, and pulls no punches when it comes to assigning blame across the board for what is a very complicated geopolitical issue with real personal and intimate consequences.

What didn’t work for me was the rest. The timelines were confusing. The biggest twist seemed so obvious to me that I wondered what the actual twist would be. And the book takes a turn into the operatic by the end.

I think there’s a real audience for this! It unfortunate just wasn’t me. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Complicated story of adoption, loss and struggle set in China and New York City. Complex issues of working women and power struggles within a marriage. .Interesting twist which I did not see coming. Utterly charming child portrayal of one of the main characters. Would definitely recommend! Lots here for Book Clubs to discuss.

Jean Kwok always creates unforgettable, shattered-but-strong characters, and her newest novel The Leftover Woman delivers that and so much more.

Jasmine has finally escaped the clutches of her controlling husband and is struggling to earn money to get her daughter back in America, the "Beautiful Country". When she accepts a job at a club where morals are minimal and her beauty is her breadwinner, Jasmine is faced with one obstacle after another.

Rebecca is a wealthy, hardworking mother whose husband Brandon is the envy of every woman and whose adopted daughter Fifi is the light of her life. As she struggles to balance a lucrative career and the demands of motherhood with the help of her diminutive nanny, Rebecca is forced to reevaluate her priorities.

The Leftover Woman is compelling, devastating and uplifting all at once. Jean Kwok is undoubtedly one of the best voices in literature today.

Awesome read! I’ve never read anything by this author before but I will look for her previous novels now. I enjoy domestic suspense, psychological thrillers most. And while it could be argued that this is a domestic suspense read, it’s SO much more. It’s about family, heritage, race, adoption mixed with some suspense. It’s a wonderful, heartfelt story that I enjoyed immensely.

This is an excellent book! I was utterly immersed from page 1.

Jasmine came to the US to escape an abusive marriage and to find her young child who was adopted by an American couple. Fiona, the child, was given up by her father due to the one-child policy in China. Once Jasmine discovered the truth, she was determined to get her child back.

Rebecca and Brandon adopted Fiona and gave her an extremely privileged life and no child was more loved. Fiona was a happy, well educated and well behaved child. She was lucky enough to have a nanny who adored her and gave her all the attention she needed while her parents worked.

When truths were discovered, who would the child end up with?

This multicultural novel is expertly written and very emotional. I highly recommend it. Thank you, NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC. This amazing, five star book hits the shelves on October 10, 2023.

Jean Kwok writes beautifully……
……her incredible storytelling stirs a full gamut of emotions. I’m so moved an impressed with this novel…….(putting Jean Kwok in the same ranks as Amy Tan, Lisa See, Jean Gish, Tan Twan Eng, and even Abraham Verghese).
I love all these authors — love Asian literature …..
But I have to put an extra strong endorsement for *Jean Kwok’s “The Leftover Woman” this year…….where I felt closer to the characters than I did in “The Covenant of Water”…..(where excruciating details were too much).

My compassion and understanding for just how much women have endured through history is elevated in ways I wasn’t expecting. I thought I knew this type of history….
yet something about the way this story is told — I ‘experienced’ things I thought I knew much deeper.
Along with the core plot are several sub plots (suspense) with characters relating to one another….in one way or another.

Jasmine Yang (a young immigrant from China running from her abusive husband who came to New York searching for her daughter — and Rebecca Whitney, a wealthy, married, Caucasian woman, is a publishing executive whose entire life is threatened from a horrific scandal) ……
are both realistically and masterfully portrayed: complex, scared, flawed, sparkling human!!!

“The Leftover Woman”” highlights how distressing China’s controversial One Child Policy affected women. Unforgiving situations.
China’s one-child policy started in 1980 and was strictly enforced with punishments including fines for violators and often forced abortions.
The aim was was to curtail population growth. The main criticism was its stimulus to sex-discrimination. The Chinese girl - once again - became expendable. Too many girls, if not aborted faced orphanages or second-class lives with reduced chances of education and healthcare.
China officially ended its one-child policy in 2016 in favor of a two-child policy before it introduced a three-child policy in May 2021.

Jean Kwok’s storytelling is page-turning-engrossing — with genuine characters that grow and evolve. The history is real. The characters sure feel real…..and Kwok touches the most common elements of our hearts.

Jasmine and Rebecca are divided by city, economic and cultural differences…… yet connected by love for a child.

A GORGEOUS -honor-to-read-novel……
…..wrenching, intelligent, beautifully constructed, occasionally funny, …..ultimately a moving tale. It has everything I want from a novel: history, fiction, love, loss, beauty, and depth.
A novel that revels the characteristics of humanity that transcend time and experience of living.

Note: since I don’t want to give major details and spoilers away …..I would like to share a little sample excerpt……
…..a sculpting delicious moment: (the scene takes place — back in China — in the village where Jasmine lived and her best friend/love, Anthony lived too):
“We were both laughing and panting by the time we reached the base of the waterfall. Smooth sheets of iridescent stone glimmered in the sunlight. I loved the rushing music of the following stream, the smell of mud and grass, the spray cool and damp against my cheeks. The water had eroded the plunge pool. On the periphery, where the waves were calm and sediment collected, we rolled up our simple cotton pants and waited. The sand tickled my toes”.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED…..one of the years best!

The Leftover Woman
By Jean Kwok
Pub Date: October 10, 2023
William Morrow
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
Leftover Woman defines each woman from different races, colors and religions who are neglected, taken advantage of or left behind defenseless.
This is the best historical fiction/ multicultural novel I have read this year. This book took my breath away.
Well done!
4 stars