Three generations of Chinese-American women in a San Francisco family must confront their past and carve out a future in this extraordinary novel, a “haunting” debut full of “shimmering and unforgettable” characters. ( New York Times Book Review ) 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. “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’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 “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 “This story of strong women and their attachments is beautifully told, and is remarkably shrewd about familial love, cultural norms, and estrangement. A wonderfully rich first novel.” - Charles Baxter, author of The Feast of Love “Poignant and impressive….this novel is one that could be taught alongside a number of other outstanding Asian American narratives/memoirs concerning adoptees such as Jane Jeong Trenka’s Fugitive Visions and Monique Truong’s Bitter in the Mouth .” - Stephen Hongsohn, Asian American Literature Fans “In telling Ari Kong’s quest, Ma succeeds in creating a deeply intelligent heroine as compelling as Holden Caulfield and Alexander Portnoy…. The Year She Left Us is a fresh, compelling look at the ties that bind among all the kinds of families that we create.” - May-Lee Chai, Dallas Morning News “Haunting.... The foundling may be a familiar figure in the history of the novel, most prominently in Dickens and the Brontës, but Ma gives us a striking 21st-century iteration….Like Philip Roth and, more recently, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Ma is unafraid to generalize about her culture and explore its snobberies and social codes….Ma writes about the darker side of Chinese adoption, her social commentary less jaunty and sentimental than Dickens, more like Dreiser in its harsh realism….One of the stunning accomplishments of this book is Ma’s tonal range.” - Mona Simpson, New York Times Book Review “Haunting….The foundling may be a family figure in the history of the novel, most prominently in Dickens and the Brontës, but Ma gives us a striking 21st-century iteration…One of the stunning accomplishments of this book is Ma’s tonal range.” - Mona Simpson, New York Times Book Review “Uniquely articulated and refreshing.” - Stanford Magazine “Poignant and impressive….this novel is one that could be taught alongside a number of other outstanding Asian American narratives/memoirs concerning adoptees such as Jane Jeong Trenka’s Fugitive Visions and Monique Truong’s Bitter in the Mouth.” - Asian American Literature Fans “Incandescent….A stirring excavation of adolescent, familial and racial identity… The Year She Left Us is difficult and lovely, wild and endearing.” - Shelf Awareness “A sparklingly original fiction debut.” - O, the Oprah Magazine “A deft, raw dissection of an American family….With great cleverness, Ma injects her Chinese family with American realism.” - Rebecca Liao, San Francisco Chronicle “There’s much to enjoy in The Year She Left Us ….It’s Ari’s voice that sets this novel on fire….The magnetism exerted by Ari’s chapters is all the more impressive because for much of the book, the character’s misery seems to float free of her circumstances.” - Laura Miller, Salon “With subtle intelligence and wry humor, Kathryn Ma br