Our Missing Hearts: by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere

Synopsis

'Governments are right to fear words. They can change hearts and topple tyrannies....It's impossible not to be moved by Margaret Miu's courage, or to applaud her craftiness...And Bird is a brave and believable character, who gives us a relatable portal into a world that seems more like our own every day' Stephen King, New York Times 'As lyrical as it is chilling, as astonishing as it is empathic, Our Missing Hearts arguably achieves literary perfection' Booklist (starred review)From the #1 bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere, a deeply heart-wrenching novel about the unbreakable love between a mother and child in a society 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 Harvard's library. He 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 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 drawn into a quest to find her. His journey will take him through 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, 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, the lessons and legacies we pass onto our children, and how any of us can survive a broken world with our hearts intact.

Copyright:

2022

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

ISBN-13:

9781408716908

Related ISBNs:

9781408716915

Publisher:

Little, Brown Book Group Limited

Date of Addition:

10/03/22

Copyrighted By:

Celeste Ng

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

Literature and Fiction, Mystery and Thrillers, Parenting and Family, Science Fiction and Fantasy

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.