The #1 New York Times bestseller • Named a Best Book of the Year by People, The Washington Post, Bustle, Esquire, Southern Living, The Daily Beast, GQ, Entertainment Weekly, NPR, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Audible, Goodreads, Library Reads, Book of the Month, Paste, Kirkus Reviews, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and more
“To say I love this book is an understatement. It’s a deep psychological mystery about the power of motherhood, the intensity of teenage love, and the danger of perfection. It moved me to tears.” —Reese Witherspoon
From the bestselling author of Everything I Never Told You and Our Missing Hearts comes a riveting novel that traces the intertwined fates of the picture-perfect Richardson family and the enigmatic mother and daughter who upend their lives.
In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned—from the layout of the winding roads, to the colors of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.
Enter Mia Warren—an enigmatic artist and single mother—who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenaged daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past and a disregard for the status quo that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.
When old family friends of the Richardsons attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town—and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia’s past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs.
Little Fires Everywhere explores the weight of secrets, the nature of art and identity, and the ferocious pull of motherhood—and the danger of believing that following the rules can avert disaster.
Named a Best Book of the Year by: People, The Washington Post, Bustle, Esquire, Southern Living, The Daily Beast, GQ, Entertainment Weekly, NPR, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Audible, Goodreads, Library Reads, Book of the Month, Paste, Kirkus Reviews, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and more
This book is basically a little bit "Desperate Housewives" crossed with racial issues on a soundtrack by Alanis Morissette, but Ng parses both sides of the interracial adoption argument with fluent prose.
There's a point in the book where a neighbour announces "You can tell that when she looks down at the baby in her arms, she doesn't see a Chinese baby. All she sees is a baby, plain and simple,". "She's a Chinese baby. She's going to grow up not knowing anything about her heritage," says another, frustrated by the seeming complexity of the situation.
And it is a complex situation. As the novel unfolds, Ng adds various subplots that support both sides of the case, in her democratic and gently mocking tone.
But situations can move a story only so far. After some time, it felt lik Ng's keenness to write a think piece on interracial adoption is greater than her desire to truly inhabit these characters and their desires.
The biggest disappointment for me was the one dimensional characters. Even the Asian characters fall under tropes. Although the stereotypes are sympathetic as opposed to negative (the benevolent neighbor, the desperate mother), they're never afforded the same depth of emotional life, however limited, that the white characters are.
A stereotype must have a fire lit beneath it in order for transformation to occur. For all her democratic storytelling and skillful plot weaving, Ng never supplies the requisite heat.
