Penguin Random House South Africa

Categories: Chatto & Windus, Contemporary Fiction, Fiction, International Fiction, Adult
ISBN: 9781784746117
Published: July 2026
Imprint: Chatto & Windus
Page Extent: 240
Format: Hardback
RRP 430.00

Left-Behind Child

Romalyn Ante

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Hardback

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About the book

'A beautiful, hypnotic novel - positively capacious in its depth, its texture, and its heart' CLAIRE LOMBARDO
'Captures brilliantly the complexity of a teenage girl's feelings for her absent mother' RACHEL JOYCE

A mother forced to leave her family. A daughter forced to reckon with what is left behind.

Lipa, Philippines, 2001. Neneng is 11 when her mother, Rosa, leaves to work as a nurse overseas: abandoning Neneng to care for a distant father, unsettled relatives and rebellious siblings. Their home shatters, and Neneng finds herself facing womanhood alone. From that point on, she vows never to become a nurse, and never to trust her mother again.

But Neneng is more like the strong-minded Rosa than she realises. As...

About the Author

Romalyn Ante

Romalyn Ante

Romalyn Ante FRSL is a Filipino-British poet, essayist, and editor. She was born in Lipa, Philippines, and was 16 years old when her mother – a nurse in the NHS – brought the family to live in the UK. Her debut poetry collection, Antiemetic for Homesickness, was shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize in 2020, and her second collection, AGIMAT, published in 2024. She lives in the West Midlands where until recently she worked as a full-time NHS nurse and psychotherapist, specialising in the mental healthcare of young people.

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