Our Missing Hearts: Reese’s Book Club: A Novel
An instant New York Times bestseller • A New York Times Notable Book • Named a Best Book of the Year by People, TIME Magazine, The Washington Post, USA Today, NPR, Los Angeles Times, and Oprah Daily, and more • A Reese’s Book Club Pick • New York Times Paperback Row Selection
“Thought-provoking, heart-wrenching . . . I was so invested in the future of this mother and son.” —Reese Witherspoon
“Riveting, tender, and timely.” —People
“Remarkable . . . An unflinching yet life-affirming drama about the power of art and love to push back in dangerous times.” —Oprah Daily
From the #1 bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere, comes the inspiring new novel about a mother’s unshakeable love.
Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet existence with his loving father, a former linguist who now shelves books in a university library. His mother, Margaret, a Chinese American poet, left without a trace when he was nine years old. He doesn’t know what happened to her—only that her books have been banned—and he resents that she cared more about her work than about him.
Then one day Bird receives a mysterious letter containing only a cryptic drawing, and soon he is pulled into a quest to find her. His journey will take him back to the many folktales she poured into his head as a child, through the ranks of an underground network of heroic librarians, and finally to New York City, where he will learn the truth about what happened to his mother and what the future holds for them both.
Our Missing Hearts is an old story made new, of the ways supposedly civilized communities can ignore the most searing injustice. It’s about the lessons and legacies we pass on to our children and the power of art to create change.
From the Publisher
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Add to Cart
Customer Reviews
4.4 out of 5 stars 185,170
4.1 out of 5 stars 86,378
Price
$2.00$2.00 $6.43$6.43
Set in the placid, progressive suburb of Shaker Heights, Little Fires Everywhere traces the intertwined fates of the picture-perfect Richardson family and the enigmatic mother and daughter who upend their lives. A gripping page-turner and a sensitive family portrait, uncovering the ways in which mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and husbands and wives struggle, all their lives, to understand one another.
Publisher : Penguin Books
Publication date : August 22, 2023
Edition : Reissue
Language : English
Print length : 352 pages
ISBN-10 : 0593492668
ISBN-13 : 978-0593492666
Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
Dimensions : 5.1 x 0.75 x 7.75 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #15,979 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #29 in Asian American & Pacific Islander Literature (Books) #197 in Dystopian Fiction (Books) #638 in Literary Fiction (Books)
Customer Reviews: 4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars (24,412) var dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction; P.when(‘A’, ‘ready’).execute(function(A) { if (dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction !== true) { dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction = true; A.declarative( ‘acrLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault”: true }, function (event) { if (window.ue) { ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } } ); } }); P.when(‘A’, ‘cf’).execute(function(A) { A.declarative(‘acrStarsLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault” : true }, function(event){ if(window.ue) { ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } }); });
Original price was: $18.00.$9.93Current price is: $9.93.
An instant New York Times bestseller • A New York Times Notable Book • Named a Best Book of the Year by People, TIME Magazine, The Washington Post, USA Today, NPR, Los Angeles Times, and Oprah Daily, and more • A Reese’s Book Club Pick • New York Times Paperback Row Selection
“Thought-provoking, heart-wrenching . . . I was so invested in the future of this mother and son.” —Reese Witherspoon
“Riveting, tender, and timely.” —People
“Remarkable . . . An unflinching yet life-affirming drama about the power of art and love to push back in dangerous times.” —Oprah Daily
From the #1 bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere, comes the inspiring new novel about a mother’s unshakeable love.
Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet existence with his loving father, a former linguist who now shelves books in a university library. His mother, Margaret, a Chinese American poet, left without a trace when he was nine years old. He doesn’t know what happened to her—only that her books have been banned—and he resents that she cared more about her work than about him.
Then one day Bird receives a mysterious letter containing only a cryptic drawing, and soon he is pulled into a quest to find her. His journey will take him back to the many folktales she poured into his head as a child, through the ranks of an underground network of heroic librarians, and finally to New York City, where he will learn the truth about what happened to his mother and what the future holds for them both.
Our Missing Hearts is an old story made new, of the ways supposedly civilized communities can ignore the most searing injustice. It’s about the lessons and legacies we pass on to our children and the power of art to create change.
From the Publisher
Add to Cart
Add to Cart
Customer Reviews
4.4 out of 5 stars 185,170
4.1 out of 5 stars 86,378
Price
$2.00$2.00 $6.43$6.43
Set in the placid, progressive suburb of Shaker Heights, Little Fires Everywhere traces the intertwined fates of the picture-perfect Richardson family and the enigmatic mother and daughter who upend their lives. A gripping page-turner and a sensitive family portrait, uncovering the ways in which mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and husbands and wives struggle, all their lives, to understand one another.
Publisher : Penguin Books
Publication date : August 22, 2023
Edition : Reissue
Language : English
Print length : 352 pages
ISBN-10 : 0593492668
ISBN-13 : 978-0593492666
Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
Dimensions : 5.1 x 0.75 x 7.75 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #15,979 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #29 in Asian American & Pacific Islander Literature (Books) #197 in Dystopian Fiction (Books) #638 in Literary Fiction (Books)
Customer Reviews: 4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars (24,412) var dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction; P.when(‘A’, ‘ready’).execute(function(A) { if (dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction !== true) { dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction = true; A.declarative( ‘acrLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault”: true }, function (event) { if (window.ue) { ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } } ); } }); P.when(‘A’, ‘cf’).execute(function(A) { A.declarative(‘acrStarsLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault” : true }, function(event){ if(window.ue) { ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } }); });
10 reviews for Our Missing Hearts: Reese’s Book Club: A Novel
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Original price was: $18.00.$9.93Current price is: $9.93.
KateMc –
Such a good book! and the audiobook is superb!
I give very, very few books five stars, but this one deserves it. I listened to the audiobook and read portions of this book through a local library.Wowza. This book was prescient, prophetic (in the actual sense of the word—not the popular cultural understating of it), and powerful.The storytelling is compelling and imaginative, and the writing is so beautiful.It is filled with references to other stories, and I really loved the way this book spoke to the power of storytelling.This book was a real gift for the word nerd in me, and I identified so closely with Nathan in his love of etymology.I would say it is a cautionary tale, but even if this is set in a dystopian near future, so much of what happens in Our Missing Hearts is current—seems to have been pulled from the headlines.Was it a little heavy handed at times in showing us a world so prevalent with Asian hate? Perhaps. Was the book absolutely spot on in its critique? Absolutely. And is the book is so important of read.It seems important to note that I checked out the both the library book and audiobook from my library—important because of the role libraries played in the book.This is one of the best audiobooks I’ve listened to. Lucy Liu is masterful in her interpretation and (with the exception of apparently not knowing a song that appeared in one scene) doesn’t waste a word, doesn’t waste a moment. I highly recommend the audiobook!!This is a wonderful book—one that will stay with me.
Laurel-Rain Snow –
A LAW THAT RUINS LIVES…
Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet existence with his loving but broken father, a former linguist who now shelves books in a university library. Bird knows to not ask too many questions, stand out too much, or 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 pulled into a quest to find her. His journey will take him back to 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 City, 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 ignore the most searing injustice. It’s a story about the power—and limitations—of art to create change, the lessons and legacies we pass on to our children, and how any of us can survive a broken world with our hearts intact.My Thoughts:There is something hollow and fearful about Our Missing Hearts as we begin the story of what life was like during the times after the “Crisis.” A time after a stringent law is passed (PACT) that focuses on people supposedly “Anti-American,” but who are mostly Asian. People whose ideas don’t jive with those who are more “in line” with American culture.Primarily we learn more about a family with a child named Bird, a mother who writes poetry but who incidentally is Asian, and a father who works in a library. What happens to this family hurts my heart, and I am feeling the angst of what can happen to families and people because of a law. An unjust law, in my opinion.Fearful of what might lie ahead for any of us kept me reading about these characters and how their lives were torn apart. And how dismantled shelves were the reminders of the books that some considered anti-American. My heart went out to what had become of these characters and what might become of any of us. 4.5 stars.***
Grace E –
Easy to read and great story!
This is a great book. The story is compelling from the start. Set in a neat future dystopia, which is different from her past work- loved!
Alanna –
Not for Me
The story of this book is great and very meaningful, but it wasn’t for me. The author likes to add a lot of flashbacks with tiny details that don’t move the story along and aren’t necessary to understand the character. As I’m reading, I want to know the story, I’m on the edge of my seat, but the majority of the book is just a delay with a bunch of filler that doesn’t move the story along. I’m not saying its bad, I know people who love this in the books they read, and it is beautifully written, its just not for me.My breaking point was when there is a flashback, that takes up the majority of a full page, where Bird is watching his fathers footprints in the snow. I stopped and googled the detailed summary of this story. I was almost half way through the book and the summary up until this part was condensed into 2-3 paragraphs that perfectly contained everything I had learned up to this point in the story. I decided to just finish the last 4 paragraphs of the summary and not read the rest of the book.If you are like me and like to be enthralled in your books, feeling like you are a part of the story and eagerly reading more and more without being bored, this book may not be for you. I’m not saying its bad, just that its not the style of book I like to read.
Groovy Sister –
She has done it again.
Celeste Ng’s latest novel is as good and any of the others. It is set in a dystopian future that may not be far ahead of where we are now. It is a time where children can be legally taken away from parents who are not pro-American and anti- China enough; where free speech is legally squashed and where a boy, Bird is without his mother for reasons he doesn’t understand. He goes to find her and learns more than he knew he didn’t know. It’s beautifully written.
asilon –
This book is 3 years old, but in those 3 years we’ve moved nearer to Bird and Margaret’s world.This is a beautifully written book about families, fear, prejudice, hope.
erin Kollmuss –
A very scary scenario, which happened in the past in the USA towards the Japanese, and which could happen again, because of big bad China. The judgemental and autocratic actions of governments is nothing to laugh off.
Ishani –
The story that shall stay with me. The book i shall recommend to all who think America is great. The imagination which may be too close to reality.
Helen –
Beautiful, heartbreaking, incredible. Highly recommend.
Jane Louise Orange –
An all too possible glimpse into the future, with racism, violence and apathy at its core. Wonderfully written and authentic characters make it impossible to put down despite the chilling plot.