Our Missing Hearts is the new novel by Celeste Ng, author of Little Fires Everywhere. Set in the near future, after years of violence and economic hardship, an authoritarian government has taken over the US and laws are put into place to protect “American culture” at all costs. Although at first this seems hard to imagine, Ng’s writing parallels so many events that are currently happening in our country it begins to feel like an all too real possibility.

Bird, a Chinese American boy, lives a quiet life with his father, after his mother, a Chinese poet left them three years earlier and hasn’t been heard from since. Bird knows from his father not to stand out or ask any questions, just to go along quietly and do his best to fit it, until one day a cryptic message arrives from his mom and he sets off on a journey to find her and discover the truth.

Part coming of age story, part dystopian nightmare, Ng has crafted a novel I couldn’t put down. This is the story of the power of the media to create a narrative that everyone buys into, but also about the power of art to create change. It is a story of race, and family, identity and culture, what it means to be American, what it means to be human, and what happens when we let fear guide us rather than our hearts. A highly recommended read.