To become an internationally renowned author in this day and age is no mean feat. Scroll through lists of literary greats, and you’ll notice that contemporary writers and their works don’t often feature highly, even when they’ve forever shaped the world with their words.

But to become an internationally renowned author with millions of book sales under your belt is another matter entirely. If you consider yourself a bibliophile, then you’ll know that status does not necessarily equal success on the shelves. But literary sensation Celeste Ng is someone who has both to her name.

The bestselling US novelist, known for her gripping page-turners Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere, has a singular ability to turn universally relevant issues – race, class, privilege, identity – into compelling stories that resonate the world over. Quite simply, her books achieve something that some people spend their whole lives searching for: to make their inner selves feel seen.

If Ng’s star was on the rise with her debut novel, the publication of her 2017 follow-up, Little Fires Everywhere, undoubtedly made Ng a household name. Named a best book of the year by over 25 publications, and published in more than 30 languages, the New York Times bestseller was snapped up by Reese Witherspoon’s production company Hello Sunshine and adapted into a compulsively watchable Hulu series in 2020 starring Witherspoon and Kerry Washington, with Ng herself serving as an executive producer. 

But Ng, whose novels have combined to sell more than two and a quarter million copies across all formats – a truly astonishing figure – is poised for even greater success. That’s why today, we’re delighted to announce the upcoming publication of Ng’s next highly anticipated novel, Our Missing Hearts.

Publishing on 4 October, Our Missing Hearts is an old story made new, of the ways supposedly civilised 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.

The gripping new novel tells the story of 12-year-old Bird Gardner, who lives a quiet existence with his loving but broken father, a former linguist who now shelves 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 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 drawn into a quest to find her. His journey will take him through 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, where a new act of defiance may be the beginning of much-needed change.

Exploring themes such as the power and limitations of art to bring about change in the world, what being a good parent really means, and whether we can retain our humanity in a society consumed by fear, the novel looks set to captivate readers by delving into another narrative enigma.

“I’m thrilled to be working with Little Brown UK once more on this new novel, which rises out of questions I perpetually ask myself: How do we raise our children to survive in a world that is vastly different from the one we ourselves knew?,” Ng said in a statement.

“What do we want to pass on to them, what will we never be able to explain, and how can we give them hope for the future in spite of everything we know?”

Given Ng’s ability to capture our imagination with her heart-stirring stories, something tells us that her new offering will be just as compelling as her previous novels. For now, prepare to make space on your reading list, and preorder Our Missing Hearts here. 

Main image: Kieran Kesner