From the #1 bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere, comes one of the most highly anticipated books of the year – the inspiring new novel about a mother’s unbreakable love in a world consumed by fear.
Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet existence with his loving but broken father, a former linguist who now shelves books in a university library. Bird knows to not ask too many questions, stand out too much, or stray too far. For a decade, their lives have been governed by laws written to preserve “American culture” in the wake of years of economic instability and violence. To keep the peace and restore prosperity, the authorities are now allowed to relocate children of dissidents, especially those of Asian origin, and libraries have been forced to remove books seen as unpatriotic—including the work of Bird’s mother, Margaret, a Chinese American poet who left the family when he was nine years old.
Bird has grown up disavowing his mother and her poems; he doesn’t know her work or what happened to her, and he knows he shouldn’t wonder. But when he receives a mysterious letter containing only a cryptic drawing, he is pulled into a quest to find her. His journey will take him back to the many folktales she poured into his head as a child, through the ranks of an underground network of librarians, into the lives of the children who have been taken, and finally to New York City, where a new act of defiance may be the beginning of much-needed change.
Our Missing Hearts is an old story made new, of the ways supposedly civilized communities can ignore the most searing injustice. It’s a story about the power—and limitations—of art to create change, the lessons and legacies we pass on to our children, and how any of us can survive a broken world with our hearts intact.
Publishing Date: October 4, 2022
Genre: Dystopian / Literary Fiction
Age Group: Adult
My Rating: 4/5
Celeste Ng is an author that I have loved everything from. Little Fires Everywhere is an all-time favorite and Everything I Never Told You is really high up there as well.
So, I was shocked to realize that she had a book come out in 2022. I literally did not know about it until a week before its release date.
This book was wonderful. It takes a concept like anti-Asian hate crimes during the pandemic and turns it into a heartbreaking story about family, loss, and rebellion. It's definitely a difficult book to read at times, but it's such a phenomenal view into the lives of everyday people under an oppressive anti-immigrant regime.
Overall, a wonderful book that I would recommend to any fans of literary fiction.
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