Jean Kwok joins Carol Fitzgerald to talk about her new novel, THE LEFTOVER WOMAN. In this book, Jasmine Yang has given birth to a girl. But with China’s One Child Policy in place, her husband tells her that the baby died and instead arranges for an adoption to take place in the US. He wants to have a son as his one child. The baby is adopted by Rebecca Whitney, who works at a publishing company. Here, Jean shares a fun “inside baseball” look at publishing, along with the story of the adopted girl.
Jasmine comes to New York undocumented seeking to reunite with her daughter. Jean emphasizes that coming to a new country like Jasmine does is hard and that she must live under the radar to support herself. She also talks about those “from home” who have touchpoints with you that are special. And she shares how her own upbringing as the youngest in a family of seven found its way into this story.
Book discussed in this episode:
THE LEFTOVER WOMAN by Jean Kwok:
https://www.bookreporter.com/reviews/the-leftover-woman
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Art Credit: Tom Fitzgerald
Edited by Jordan Redd Productions