RaveThe Nashville SceneThe Leavers, which is based on real events, resonates with particular urgency in the America of 2017. The novel takes us through the harrowing experience of a person disappeared by the United States government, with little to no legal recourse, because of their immigration status. They are punished for even a mild protest of conditions, and then deported after speaking out of turn in a sham court proceeding. We see the repercussions: the cleaving of family, the forced abandonment, the lives derailed and scattered. The book doesn’t so much engage in ‘the immigration debate’ as illustrate its lived consequences … The Leavers offers no easy answers, but at every turn it is skillfully observed and written, sidestepping convenient explanations on the way to nuanced moments of tremendous grace.
