A Country You Can Leave

Lara and her mother Yevgenia land in the Oasis Mobile Estates with a blue suitcase, a ring of keys, and a live‑wire bond that swings between fierce loyalty and incendiary conflict. Yevgenia is a Soviet escapee with a mind like a steel trap and a notebook full of rules about men, money, and literature. Lara is sixteen, hungry for safety and truth, and caught in the chaos of their always-on-the-move life. Between a crush on a neighbor with secrets, new friends who pull her toward books and bad decisions, and a neighbor boy who needs more than anyone can give, Lara learns the hard math of class, race, and belonging. A Country You Can Leave is a story about choosing yourself without losing the people who shaped you—told with wit, heat, and the ache of growing up fast.

• Fans of sharp, voice‑driven coming‑of‑age fiction
• Listeners who love complicated mother‑daughter stories
• Anyone interested in class, migration, and identity told with humor and heat

Asale Angel‑Ajani is a writer and professor at the City College of New York. A Country You Can Leave is her first novel, praised for its incisive voice and emotional precision. She has authored nonfiction, held residencies, and brings a scholar’s eye and a storyteller’s heart to the page.