Celeste Ng on her new book ‘Our Missing Hearts': ‘it's terrifying to think of going to a library and finding that most of the books have been taken away'
-
Loading... - Benjamin Fournier
- 02 Nov 2022
- 60 Views
- 0 Like
- 0 Comment
Adolescence can be excruciating, even to think back upon. Hormones churn, bodies are uncontrollable, minds spiral with unsettling thoughts. But there is also quiet beauty beyond the pimples and eye rolls during this time of inquisitiveness and emotional growth, even if we don’t remember the good parts.
Over three novels, starting with 2014’s debut “Everything I Never Told You” and the blockbuster “Little Fires Everywhere,” Celeste Ng has shown a remarkable capacity for tapping into that soon-to-be teen spirit with realness and empathy. Her latest bestseller, “Our Missing Hearts,” continues to explore family dynamics through the observant lens of youth — in this case, set in a frightening world that looks uncomfortably similar to our own.
Ng, in Toronto for a promotional tour — her latest title has been named Book of the Year by Indigo Books & Music — says she’s always been drawn to writing adolescent characters even before she became the mom to her own tween.
“It’s such an interesting age. They’re not children anymore, but they’re figuring out what their context is,” she says. “It’s that time where you start learning about what happened in the world before you and you get a sense of the bigger picture. Like this has been the frame of your life so far and suddenly you realize there’s stuff outside the frame. It’s also the time where you start realizing that your parents had a life before you and that they’re actual people.”
In “Our Missing Hearts,” Noah Gardner, a 12-year-old Chinese American boy nicknamed Bird, is living with his father in subsidized housing at Harvard University (where Ng graduated with her English degree in 2002). At an age where he should be riding his bike and upping his video game scores, Bird is growing up in a country ruled by PACT (the Preserving American Culture and Traditions Act), a set of laws established after “the Crisis,” which mostly targets those of Asian descent. While no date is given, this world feels like an alternative version of today. Read More...
