Excerpt from The Leavers by Lisa Ko, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Her voice was a trumpet, her words sharp triangles. Deming remembered the years without her, the silent house on 3 Alley with Yi Gong, and saw a street so quiet he could only hear himself blink. "I'm not going."

"I'm your mother. You have to go with me."

The bodega door slammed shut. Mrs. Johnson, who lived in their building, walked out with two plastic bags.

"You weren't with me when I was in China," he said.

"Yi Gong was with you then. I was working so I could save money to have you here. It's different now."

He removed his hand from hers. "Different how?"

"You'll love Florida. You'll have a big house and your own room."

"I don't want my own room. I want Michael there."

"You've moved before. It wasn't so hard, was it?"

The light had changed, but Mrs. Johnson remained on their side of the street, watching them. University Avenue wasn't Chinatown, where they had lived before moving in with Leon in the Bronx. There were no other Fuzhounese families on their block, and sometimes people looked at them like their language had come out of the drain.

Deming answered in English. "I'm not going. Leave me alone."

She raised her hand. He jolted back as she lunged forward. Then she hugged him, the snowy front of her jacket brushing against his cheek, his nose pressing into her chest. He could hear her heartbeat through the layers of clothing, thumping and determined, and before he could relax he forced himself to wriggle out of her arms and race up the block, backpack bumping against his spine. She clomped after him in her plastic boots, hooting as she slid across the sidewalk.

Excerpted from The Leavers by Lisa Ko. Copyright © 2017 by Lisa Ko. Excerpted by permission of Algonquin Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.