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The Left-Behind Child
‘A must-read… Ante’s sensuous description of life… counts the true cost to one family of a mother having to work abroad as a nurse. There’s pain for everybody, but this… is written with such joy that the overall effect is exhilarating’ GWYNETH LEWIS
'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 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 Neneng fights to survive and build a new life, the darknesses in the family’s past come to light, and the reasons why Rosa needed to leave become clearer. When a twist of fate brings a new mother figure into her orbit, Neneng will come to understand why the profession of nursing matters so deeply to Rosa and – when crisis strikes – what ‘care’ means to Neneng.
Praise for Romalyn
'Ante is ... unparalleled in her image-making' Fiona Benson
'Spellbinding' Observer
'Powerful and hopeful ... Filled with heart and beauty' Cecile Pin
'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 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 Neneng fights to survive and build a new life, the darknesses in the family’s past come to light, and the reasons why Rosa needed to leave become clearer. When a twist of fate brings a new mother figure into her orbit, Neneng will come to understand why the profession of nursing matters so deeply to Rosa and – when crisis strikes – what ‘care’ means to Neneng.
Praise for Romalyn
'Ante is ... unparalleled in her image-making' Fiona Benson
'Spellbinding' Observer
'Powerful and hopeful ... Filled with heart and beauty' Cecile Pin
225 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 13, 2026
About the author
Romalyn Ante
10 books16 followersRomalyn Ante was born in 1989 in Lipa Batangas, Philippines. She was 16 years old when her mother – a nurse in the NHS – brought the family to the UK. Her debut pamphlet, Rice & Rain, won the Saboteur Award for Best Poetry Pamphlet 2018. She is the winner of the Poetry London Clore Prize 2018; joint-winner of the Manchester Poetry Prize 2017, and the recipient of the Platinum Poetry in Creative Future Literary Awards 2017. She currently lives in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, where she works as a registered nurse and psychotherapist.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 16, 2026
Originally posted on: @hoysarah.pages on Instagram.
This general fic, coming-of-age story is about the hardships of a girl growing up with her absent mother, who made the decision to work elsewhere to earn a better living for her family.
If you live in Singapore, chances are, you know at least 1 Filipino person in your life. More likely than not, they are working here while they have family in the Philippines.
My most-anticipated read of the month. I purchased the book on publication day (13 Aug) and finished it in 3 days. I haven't read a book on this topic before, and I was excited to go into it, to see the representation of overseas workers, the difficult decision they made, and what their children go through, in this context, from the perspective of the kids.
I was delighted to see a glimpse of the other side as well, from the mother's side. Her debut novel, Romalyn Ante, a poet, writes this book like a poem. Her prose is lyrical and captivating, yet grounded. Some of my favourite quotes are in the subsequent slides, then a jump scare of me crying to this book. The anger, loneliness, feeling of unfairness were palpable.
If you've never read a Filipino fiction book, I'd recommend going into this one to understand more of the Filipino experience.
This general fic, coming-of-age story is about the hardships of a girl growing up with her absent mother, who made the decision to work elsewhere to earn a better living for her family.
If you live in Singapore, chances are, you know at least 1 Filipino person in your life. More likely than not, they are working here while they have family in the Philippines.
My most-anticipated read of the month. I purchased the book on publication day (13 Aug) and finished it in 3 days. I haven't read a book on this topic before, and I was excited to go into it, to see the representation of overseas workers, the difficult decision they made, and what their children go through, in this context, from the perspective of the kids.
I was delighted to see a glimpse of the other side as well, from the mother's side. Her debut novel, Romalyn Ante, a poet, writes this book like a poem. Her prose is lyrical and captivating, yet grounded. Some of my favourite quotes are in the subsequent slides, then a jump scare of me crying to this book. The anger, loneliness, feeling of unfairness were palpable.
If you've never read a Filipino fiction book, I'd recommend going into this one to understand more of the Filipino experience.
August 31, 2026
A beautiful book about children left behind in the Philippines when their mothers go abroad to work. About the complex feelings of a teenage girl towards her absent mother.
Review of advance copy received from Author
Some stories don’t just break your heart; they quietly rebuild your understanding of love, sacrifice, and survival.
Set in Lipa, Philippines in 2001, this novel follows Neneng, an 11-year-old girl left behind when her mother leaves overseas to work as a nurse. What unfolds is not simply a story about abandonment, but about the impossible choices women make for their families, and the emotional cost of care.
If I were to describe this book with one word, it would be: HOME.
This novel made me emotional in so many ways because it closely resembled stories from back home. My siblings and I almost became left-behind children ourselves when my mom once received an offer for a nursing position in the US. It was our grandma — her mother-in-law — who made her think twice about leaving all five of us behind, and in the end, she simply didn’t have the heart to do it. She stayed, sacrificed her career for our family, and became a full-time homemaker instead.
Because of that, this story hit me deeply. Neneng’s anger, loneliness, and confusion felt painfully real, but so did Rosa’s sacrifices. The novel captures something many families quietly carry: the weight of duty, migration, motherhood, and the longing to build a better life without losing the people you love most. As family secrets emerge and Neneng slowly begins to understand her mother’s choices, the story transforms into something even more powerful: a meditation on what care truly means.
Set in Lipa, Philippines in 2001, this novel follows Neneng, an 11-year-old girl left behind when her mother leaves overseas to work as a nurse. What unfolds is not simply a story about abandonment, but about the impossible choices women make for their families, and the emotional cost of care.
If I were to describe this book with one word, it would be: HOME.
This novel made me emotional in so many ways because it closely resembled stories from back home. My siblings and I almost became left-behind children ourselves when my mom once received an offer for a nursing position in the US. It was our grandma — her mother-in-law — who made her think twice about leaving all five of us behind, and in the end, she simply didn’t have the heart to do it. She stayed, sacrificed her career for our family, and became a full-time homemaker instead.
Because of that, this story hit me deeply. Neneng’s anger, loneliness, and confusion felt painfully real, but so did Rosa’s sacrifices. The novel captures something many families quietly carry: the weight of duty, migration, motherhood, and the longing to build a better life without losing the people you love most. As family secrets emerge and Neneng slowly begins to understand her mother’s choices, the story transforms into something even more powerful: a meditation on what care truly means.
Review of advance copy
Just beautiful. I read the entire book in one go. Romalyn Ante uses her poet's skill with language to immerse us in a young girl’s grief and anger at being “left behind” by her mother. She also shows the real warmth in the Filipino family relationships portrayed. The Philippines is painted in vivid technicolour, from the market where "Maya-maya and tilapia flapped in shallow basins of water, red and silver scales scattering" to the "charred trees" and the "shrivelling lament of crickets" at the slum where Dahlia lives. What moved me most was the inclusion of prosaic artefacts from Rosa’s life abroad. Shopping lists, post-it notes, and a payslip quietly hint at the gaps in the story: the daily heartbreak the absent mother must have felt away from her children for four years. A lyrical and thought-provoking read.
I was lucky enough to get a copy of the hardback edition at the author's book launch.
I was lucky enough to get a copy of the hardback edition at the author's book launch.
August 17, 2026
The Left Behind Child is one of those books that quietly gets under your skin and stays there. It’s a reminder that love and sacrifice aren’t always obvious, especially through the eyes of a child who simply knows that her mum is gone.
There are moments in this book that are painful, tender and beautifully human. It explores family, motherhood, sacrifice and forgiveness without ever making any of them feel simple. The setting in the Philippines gives the story so much life, but it’s the characters and their relationships that really pull you in. There were moments that made me stop and think, and others that genuinely touched me.
It’s a story with so much heart and one I think will resonate with anyone who has ever looked back at their childhood and realised there were things they couldn’t possibly have understood at the time.
A genuinely moving read and one I’d wholeheartedly recommend. Neneng and Rosa’s story will stay with me for a long time.
There are moments in this book that are painful, tender and beautifully human. It explores family, motherhood, sacrifice and forgiveness without ever making any of them feel simple. The setting in the Philippines gives the story so much life, but it’s the characters and their relationships that really pull you in. There were moments that made me stop and think, and others that genuinely touched me.
It’s a story with so much heart and one I think will resonate with anyone who has ever looked back at their childhood and realised there were things they couldn’t possibly have understood at the time.
A genuinely moving read and one I’d wholeheartedly recommend. Neneng and Rosa’s story will stay with me for a long time.
August 13, 2026
The Left-Behind Child is a beautiful and lyrical exploration of family, migration and the cost of absence.
Ante uses surprising imagery, music and rhythm, and emotional power in her writing (she’s a poet, and started her work winning prizes like the Manchester and the Poetry London Prize). I read her first collection, Anti-emetic for Homesickness, and I am happy to hear her voice again in a debut novel.
Sometimes comical and sometimes sad, this novel is deeply human, showing how Neneng overcomes the challenges of being a left-behind child when her mother Rosa left the Philippines to work as a nurse in other countries. The sections that show Rosa’s experiences are also beautiful examples of what migrant nurses sacrifice not only for their family but also for other countries’ healthcare system.
I really enjoyed this lyrical and moving story.
Ante uses surprising imagery, music and rhythm, and emotional power in her writing (she’s a poet, and started her work winning prizes like the Manchester and the Poetry London Prize). I read her first collection, Anti-emetic for Homesickness, and I am happy to hear her voice again in a debut novel.
Sometimes comical and sometimes sad, this novel is deeply human, showing how Neneng overcomes the challenges of being a left-behind child when her mother Rosa left the Philippines to work as a nurse in other countries. The sections that show Rosa’s experiences are also beautiful examples of what migrant nurses sacrifice not only for their family but also for other countries’ healthcare system.
I really enjoyed this lyrical and moving story.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Once I started reading this book - I couldn’t let go. The writing was beautifully executed, it flows easily alongside the journey of the characters.
One does not need to be a ‘left-behind child’ to feel with & live with the pains, struggles and learnings of Neneng. In each one of us is a Neneng in many ways - of figuring out our roles in our family, of understanding the dynamics on how things came to be, of processing our emotions (or not & instead shoving it away)… likewise, each one of us is also a Rosa. Someone who has had to sacrifice and endure.
I may have shed a tear or two here while reading this book - so readers beware. :) it’s a book that will make you feel emotions - of family, of hopes and of connections. Thanks Romalyn for this beautiful work!
One does not need to be a ‘left-behind child’ to feel with & live with the pains, struggles and learnings of Neneng. In each one of us is a Neneng in many ways - of figuring out our roles in our family, of understanding the dynamics on how things came to be, of processing our emotions (or not & instead shoving it away)… likewise, each one of us is also a Rosa. Someone who has had to sacrifice and endure.
I may have shed a tear or two here while reading this book - so readers beware. :) it’s a book that will make you feel emotions - of family, of hopes and of connections. Thanks Romalyn for this beautiful work!
August 17, 2026
A beautifully written and deeply moving book. The Left Behind Child is filled with so much heart, honesty and emotion, exploring the experiences of family, separation, sacrifice and the lasting impact of growing up apart from those you love. Romalyn Ante writes with such tenderness that it’s difficult not to feel connected to the story and the emotions behind it. At times heartbreaking, but also full of warmth, strength and hope. A powerful and thought-provoking read that stays with you long after you’ve finished it. Highly recommended and already reading it again!
Review of advance copy received from Author
Beautiful and lyrical! I’d read anything Romalyn Ante writes.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews