2 Dec 2022

Celeste Ng: creating a realistic dystopia in Our Missing Hearts

From Nine To Noon, 10:05 am on 2 December 2022

American author Celeste Ng is best known for her novel Little Fires Everywhere, a family drama set in Celeste's own hometown; the upscale suburb of Shaker Heights, Ohio.

The book was a major best-seller and was later adapted for TV, starring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington. Her first novel, Everything I Never Told You took six years to come to fruition, but was an instant New York Times best-seller.

She now has a new book, Our Missing Hearts. Set in a dystopian, but chillingly realistic America, a political and economic crisis has led to anti-Asian racism and violence.

At the story's centre is a 12 year-old Chinese American boy named Bird, and his mother Margaret, whose poetry has become a rallying cry to protest new, racist legislation. 

Celeste Ng

Photo: Supplied / Kieran Kesner