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Tackling vital contemporary issues such as nationalism, censorship and the irrepressible power of literature, this beautifully wrought dystopian novel from the author of Little Fires Everywhere is essential reading for our times.
Signed Edition
A Standard Edition is available here
From the #1 bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere, a deeply heartwrenching novel about the unbreakable love between a mother and child in a society consumed by fear.
Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet and circumspect existence with his loving but broken father, a talented linguist now relegated to shelving books in a library. Bird knows not to ask too many questions, stand out too much, 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 re-locate 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 C hinese 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 drawn into a quest to find her. His journey will take him through the many folktales she poured into his head as a child, into an underground resistance network of librarians, into the lives of the many children who have been taken, and finally to New York, 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 turn a blind eye to the most searing injustice. It's a story about the power - and limitations - of art to create change in the world, what being a good parent really means, and how any of us can retain our humanity in a society where fear dominates.
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
ISBN: 9781408717301
Number of pages: 352
Dimensions: 240 x 156 mm
Thank you to the publishers for this review copy, this was a very intense read and one that will certainly stay with you.
Gently told but very much looks at citizenship, families, power of literature - it is heart...
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Having read and loved Celeste Ng's previous books I was eager to read this ARC copy of her new work gifted to me by NetGalley and the publisher. The book was not what I was expecting at all but wow, what a... More
This novel feels something of a departure for NG, whose previous books I have loved. This is no exception, It's a real page turner and chillingly prescient, set in the near future. The story centres around Bird a... More
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