A Country You Can Leave
Ratings1
Average rating4
15
Ratings1
Average rating4
"A tour de force of character, and a captivating story to match. Vivid, tender and unflinching. I loved this journey. " —Ann-Marie MacDonald, author of Fayne A stunning debut novel following the turbulent relationship of a Black, biracial teen and her ferocious Russian mother, struggling to survive in the California desert. When sixteen-year-old Lara and her fiery mother, Yevgenia, find themselves homeless again, the misnamed Oasis Mobile Estates is all they can afford. In this new community, where residents are down on their luck but rich in humor and escape plans, Lara navigates what it means to be the Black biracial daughter of a Russian mother and begins to wonder what a life beyond Yevgenia’s orbit—with her insistence on reading only the right kind of books (Russian) and having the right kind of relationships (casual, with lots of sex)—might look like. When a brutal attack exposes the cracks in their relationship, Lara and Yevgenia are forced to confront the family legacy of violence and the strain of inherited trauma on the bonds of their love. A Country You Can Leave is a dazzling, sharp-witted story suffused with yearning, as Lara and Yevgenia attempt to forge their own identities and thrive in a hostile land. Compelling and empathetic, wry and intimate, Asale Angel-Ajani’s unforgettable debut novel examines the beauty and dangers of womanhood in multiracial America.
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This is listed as a coming of age story but I found it to be mostly an exploration of the relationship between the mother and the child and of life as a neglected child. I liked that Angel-Ajani resisted the tendency to over-dramatize the feelings associated with neglect that too often make such narratives cringe inducing, but it also made the reading experience a little hard to approach.
Not the easiest read but one that asks you to sit with it and contemplate its study in nuance.
