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Lisa Ko

Goodreads Author

Born

NYC

Website

http://lisa-ko.com

Twitter

iamlisako

Genre

Fiction

Member Since

March 2016

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I'm the author of THE LEAVERS, a novel that won the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction and was a finalist for the 2017 National Book Award in Fiction. Set in New York and China, THE LEAVERS follows one young man's search for his mother, an undocumented Chinese immigrant who disappears when he's 11 years old, after which he is adopted by a white family. It's the story of one mother and her son: what brings them together and takes them apart.

I'm a believer in the long game: I started writing stories when I was 5 years old and published my first book at 41.

Find me on Twitter, learn more about my journey to publication on my website, and check out my PEN Ten interview. ...more

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Combine Editions
Lisa Ko’s books

Average rating: 3.87 · 46,947 ratings · 5,125 reviews · 5 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Leavers 3.89 avg rating — 44,445 ratings — published 2017 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Contractors 3.57 avg rating — 2,349 ratings — published 2020 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Out of Line: Women on the Verge of a Breakthrough by Cheryl Strayed (Goodreads Author) (Contributor), Roxane Gay (Goodreads Author) (Contributor), Caroline Kepnes (Goodreads Author) (Contributor) 3.62 avg rating — 81 ratings — published 2020	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	McSweeney's Issue 68 by Daniel Gumbiner (Editor), Dave Eggers (Editor), Alejandro Zambra (Goodreads Author) 3.89 avg rating — 72 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Jackie and Giselle 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Lisa Ko…

3 posts
Lisa Ko's Blog

The Leavers Mixtape

While I was working on The Leavers, I made a mixtape that I’d listen to on my headphones while I wrote. Songs that my protagonists, Polly and Deming, might listen to. Songs that helped evoke certain scenes in the book.

Cat Power, “Manhattan”

He wandered out to the rooftop, the city spread wide like an offering, though he knew better than to admit he was impressed by the view. Upstate, snow was every

Those of us who like to give books as holiday gifts have the same problem every year: People are weird. Well, people are very…specific is...

Polls

January BoTM Side Read Nomations ~ 1st Poll

Top 5 Books will move onto the final poll

The Leavers

by Lisa Ko

11 votes, 20.0%

The Hate U Give

by Angie Thomas

11 votes, 20.0%

Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood

by Trevor Noah

7 votes, 12.7%

Ginny Moon

by Benjamin Ludwig

6 votes, 10.9%

The Alienist

by Caleb Carr

5 votes, 9.1%

The Rent Collector

by Camron Wright

4 votes, 7.3%

Homegoing

by Yaa Gyasi

4 votes, 7.3%

Best Day Ever

by Kaira Rouda

3 votes, 5.5%

The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland

by Jim DeFede

3 votes, 5.5%

Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters

by Mark Dunn

1 vote, 1.8%

55 total votes

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