Our missing hearts : a novel

Título
Our missing hearts : a novel

Celeste, Ng

Resumen
Twelve year old Bird Gardner lives a quiet and circumspect existence with his loving but broken father, a talented linguist now relegated to shelving books in Harvard's library. He knows not to ask too many questions, stand out too much, 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 re-locate children of dissidents, especially those of Asian origin, and libraries have been forced to remove books seen as un-patriotic -- 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 drawn into a quest to find her. His journey will take him through the many folktales she poured into his head as a child, into an underground resistance network of librarians, into the lives of the many children who have been taken, and finally to New York, 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 turn a blind eye to the most searing injustice. It's a story about the power -- and limitations -- of art to create change in the world, what being a good parent really means, and how any of us can survive with a heart beating inside.

Fecha de publicación como intervalo
2022-2023

Descripción física
335 pages ; 24 cm.

Término de la materia
Chinese Americans -- Fiction.
 
Mothers and sons -- Fiction.
 
Racism against Asians -- Fiction
 
Quests (Expeditions) -- Fiction.
 
Dissenters -- Fiction.

Término geográfico
New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction.

Género
Psychological fiction.
 
Dystopian fiction.

Síntesis
Twelve year old Bird Gardner lives a quiet and circumspect existence with his loving but broken father, a talented linguist now relegated to shelving books in Harvard's library. He knows not to ask too many questions, stand out too much, 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 re-locate children of dissidents, especially those of Asian origin, and libraries have been forced to remove books seen as un-patriotic -- 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 drawn into a quest to find her. His journey will take him through the many folktales she poured into his head as a child, into an underground resistance network of librarians, into the lives of the many children who have been taken, and finally to New York, 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 turn a blind eye to the most searing injustice. It's a story about the power -- and limitations -- of art to create change in the world, what being a good parent really means, and how any of us can survive with a heart beating inside.

ISBN
9780735245341
 
9780735245365
 
9780593492543
 
9780735246645

Información de publicación
[Toronto] : Viking, 2022.
 
New York : Penguin Press, 2022.
 
[Toronto, Ontario] : Penguin, an imprint of Penguin Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited, 2023.
 
©2022


BibliotecaSignatura topográficaTipo de materialCódigo de barras del documentoEstado
Jasper PlaceF NGBook30071000671201Fiction