Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng

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 finally 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.

The Page Turners Book Club will discuss this title on Wednesday, November 15, 2023, at 1:30 pm at the Sunrise Beach Library. The Page Turners Book Club meets on the third Wednesday of each month at 1:30 pm at the Sunrise Beach Library. With the exception of June and July when they meet on the third Thursday of the month at 1:30 pm.

Copies of this title are available from: Missouri Evergreen Card Catalog and Missouri Libraries 2 Go & Libby