Our Missing Hearts

"Thought-provoking, heart-wrenching ... [Our Missing Hearts is] set in a not-too-distant future where entire sections of the population are deemed un-American and forced away from their families. It follows the story of a young boy named Bird on the search for his mother Margaret, a poet whose work was deemed unpatriotic. I was so invested in the future of this mother and son, and I can't wait to hear what you think of this deeply suspenseful story!" -Reese Witherspoon (Reese's Book Club October '22 Pick) "Firmly written and well-executed ... a meditation on the sometimes accidental power of words ... I won't give away the splendid conclusion of Ng's book; suffice it to say ... It's impossible not to be moved by Margaret Miu's courage, or to applaud her craftiness ... Ng succeeds ... partly because her outrage is contained and focused, and mostly because she is often captivated by the very words she is using ... 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, The New York Times Book Review

"In this riveting, tender and timely book, one mother speaks 'into the darkness' with love. Celeste Ng pleads: Listen." -People, Book of the Week

"Heart-wrenching and brilliant ... This is the book I will pass down to my children when they ask me what it was like to live through this time in history: the pandemic, anti-Asian attacks, and the racial justice protests that have come to define our moment. It captures the difficulty of bearing witness at personal cost to oneself and caring about things even when they seem beyond fixing." -The Boston Globe

"Suspenseful ... Ng unflinchingly depicts acts of racism, family fragmentation and the violence seamed into American identity. Ng's book is also an homage to librarians who are the vanguard of resistance to PACT ... Ng excels at narrative tension and at mustering readers' fear and outrage ... a powerful reflection and grim augury ... Like George Orwell, Margaret Atwood, Kazuo Ishiguro and Octavia E. Butler, Ng pays close enough attention to write tomorrow's headlines." -The San Francisco Chronicle

"Working in the tradition of The Handmaid's Tale and 1984, Our Missing Hearts is at its core a parable about the wages of fear, how it can lead to bigotry, racism and institutionalized hatred ... elevated, mythic ... depicting the workings of control and domination throughout a culture and a nation ... The notion of the accidental warrior is one of the many generous and compassionate aspects of Ng's story-the idea that there is something brave in everyone-if only it can be reached." -The Washington Post

"With a chilling premise and frequently stunning prose, this dystopian drama is a jolt to the system and a booster of hope." -Oprah Daily

"[Ng's] most powerful work to date." -People

"Ng has crafted an unwaveringly dark fairy tale for a world that has stopped making sense." -Vogue