The Leftover Woman

The Leftover Woman (2023) is Chinese American author Jean Kwok’s fourth novel. It follows Girl in Translation, (2010) Mambo in Chinatown, (2014), and Searching for Sylvie Lee (2019). Kwok is an award-winning, New York Times best-selling author whose works have been lauded by critics and readers alike for their engagement with issues of gender, race, and class and for the way that they speak to the experiences of Chinese and Chinese American women. Kwok is an important voice within the genre of Chinese American literature and has received numerous awards including the Chinese American Librarians Association Best Book award and the American Library Association Alex Award. Kwok’s novels have received positive reviews in The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, Vogue, and other publications. The Leftover Woman shares with Kwok’s previous novels a thematic interest in gender, immigration, and racism in Chinese American communities but also explores the complex politics of cross-cultural adoption through the lens of China’s one-child policy.

This guide refers to the 2023 hardcover edition by William Morrow, an imprint of Harper Collins.

Content Warning: The source text contains descriptions of sexual assault, abuse, and anti-Asian racism.

Plot Summary

The novel unfolds in chapters that alternate between its two narrators’ points of view. It begins as Jasmine, a recent Chinese immigrant to the United States, looks for a job so she can repay the smugglers who transported her out of China. She tries to obtain a position in a teahouse in Manhattan and at a nearby architectural firm without luck; she is not in the United States legally and therefore does not have a work permit, and her English language skills are limited. During her job search, she runs into a childhood friend named Anthony, who also immigrated to the United States. There is an old animosity between the two, and their interaction is strained. A woman who overhears Jasmine’s interview in the teahouse suggests she apply for a waitressing position at Opium, a nearby club. Without other options, she decides to contact the manager.

Jasmine chose to immigrate in part because of her unhappy marriage and in part because of China’s one-child policy. She had married the much-older Wen when she was only 14 years old. At the time, she and Anthony had feelings for each other, but their families objected to the match. Jasmine tried to make the best of her circumstances. Wen was a wealthy man and could provide her with many opportunities, but he was also jealous and controlling. She quickly figured out that her life with him would always be difficult, but her situation reached an inflection point after a series of failed pregnancies. The one child she did carry to term was taken from her immediately after she gave birth. Wen informed her that the girl died, but Jasmine learned later that he had put the child up for adoption; in China, couples were only allowed one baby, and few people wanted girls. She resolved to immigrate in hopes of finding her daughter in New York and reconnecting with her.

Rebecca, the novel’s second narrator, is an executive at a large publishing house in New York. She is married to an academic named Brandon, and the two have a child, Fiona (Fifi), together: Fifi was adopted from a rural Chinese village and is Jasmine’s daughter. Rebecca is struggling at work because of her involvement in a recent plagiarism scandal, and she is trying desperately to secure the publication rights to a new novel by a noteworthy female author. Because she has been so focused on her career, she has been spending less time with her husband and daughter, and she worries that her marriage is suffering as a result. Brandon speaks Chinese, and both he and their Chinese nanny, Lucy, have been teaching it to Fifi. Rebecca feels left out of the relationship that the three share as a result of their shared language skills. One of Rebecca’s main competitors in the publishing world, Mason, is aware that Rebecca shared an illicit, extra-marital kiss with the author whose plagiarism she also failed to catch, and she worries that he will blackmail her and poach the contract she is trying to secure.

Jasmine, meanwhile, gets a job at Opium, which turns out to be a strip club that caters to Chinese and Chinese American businessmen. Although she is only a waitress, she finds the club’s sexualized atmosphere difficult and struggles with sexual harassment at work. She feels exploited and reflects that her current position is not much better than her marriage. She has not managed to escape the sexism and inequality that characterized her life in China, and she is sustained only by thoughts of her daughter.

Rebecca begins to suspect Brandon of infidelity and panics when she finds a condom in their house. She is sure that he is sleeping with Lucy and confronts him. He responds with angry denial, and Rebecca fears that she has further harmed their marriage. He continues to act in ways that arouse suspicion in Rebecca, and their interactions remain strained and, at times, hostile. Rebecca pursues a friendship with her potential author’s agent, and the two women bond over their daughters’ shared interest in ballet and Asian culture.

Jasmine and Anthony continue to see each other, but they also argue about their past and their future. She reveals more to him about her life with Wen and her parents’ refusal to let her shape her own destiny. However, she cannot seem to commit to a relationship with Anthony, an outcome that he clearly desires. Her work at Opium is a source of constant stress, especially when she learns of the club’s connections to Chinese organized crime. One night, Brandon, who is entertaining a group of Chinese visitors at his university, comes to Opium and recognizes Jasmine. She is revealed to be Lucy, Fifi’s nanny. Brandon is an old friend of Jasmine’s husband, Wen, and when Jasmine learned about the adoption, she began to correspond with him. The two arranged for her to travel to the United States to be Fifi’s nanny when Fifi was old enough. Unfortunately, Wen has been looking for Jasmine, and because of his connection to the organized criminal syndicate that operates inside of Opium, he finds her. He orchestrates a break-in at Brandon and Rebecca’s home and a mugging to “warn” Brandon.

Against the backdrop of this violence, Rebecca does manage to secure the publication contract she’d been seeking, but Mason follows through on his threat of blackmail. Brandon finds out that Rebecca and her troubled author shared a kiss and that she kept the incident from him. There is little time for the couple to react to this news, however, because Wen shows up at their home. He hopes to persuade Jasmine to leave with him and plans to also take Fifi back to China. Rebecca realizes that Lucy/Jasmine is actually her adoptive daughter’s birth mother and is struck by how difficult these last few months must have been for her. She instantly regrets her animosity toward her nanny and apologizes. Jasmine refuses to accompany Wen back to China, and Wen pulls a gun. A fight ensues in which he wounds Rebecca, and Jasmine fatally shoots him. She is sure that the police will not believe that her crime was an act of self-defense and leaves to go into hiding. Rebecca and Brandon assure her that they will take proper care of Fifi, and they raise her with love and an awareness of her Chinese heritage and her birth mother’s identity. At the end of the novel, Fifi reunites with Jasmine, who is married to Anthony and has a new baby of her own.