The Year She Left Us - Tapa dura

"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"

"A sparklingly original fiction debut."--"O, the Oprah Magazine"

"Uniquely articulated and refreshing."--"Stanford Magazine"

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 ""

Haunting .The foundling may be a family figure in the history of the novel, most prominently in Dickens and the Brontes, 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""

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""

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""

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""

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""

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 ""