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Our Missing Hearts
- Narrated by: Celeste Ng, Lucy Liu
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
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Our Missing Hearts
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Publisher's Summary
From the number one best-selling author of Little Fires Everywhere, a deeply heart-wrenching novel about the unbreakable love between a mother and child in a society consumed by fear.
Read by award-winning actress Lucy Liu, with an author's note read by Celeste Ng.
Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner 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.
Our Missing Hearts is an old story made new, of the ways supposedly civilised 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, the lessons and legacies we pass onto our children and how any of us can survive a broken world with our hearts intact.
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What listeners say about Our Missing Hearts
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Melinda Logan
- 04-05-2023
New speed for Celeste Ng
I really enjoyed the story, but the narration drove me nuts - too breathy, pauses in the wrong spot, emphasis on the wrong words. It is a testament to the great storyline that I finished it, despite the poor choice of narrator.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Donna Preston
- 14-04-2024
The story could fit many historical and current world issues
Too long. Especially where Margarets part enters the book. I started to get bored and felt it went too long.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Ruth
- 02-12-2022
Thought Provoking
Excellent book, the themes are very close to home for too many people in this world
A story of where racism and fear of the other can lead us.
The narration was excellent too
Well done all involved
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Annie Wilson
- 15-04-2023
Poetic artistic and moving
Celeste Ng gas created a world that could easily be made real.
The world has shades of The Handmaiden and 1984.
It is an unsettling story written with poignancy. It should be mandatory reading in all highschool curriculums.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 05-06-2023
Heart-string pulling!
What a thought-provoking novel - one everyone should read! It challenges us to question and consider those things we often choose to ignore. So beautifully narrated in every aspect too!
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 15-02-2024
Pretty boring
I really wanted to love this book but it felt boring. Way too long. Dull performances. Not much suspense. A very light listen.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 06-11-2022
Heartbreaking dystopian story
I’m not sure what I wanted out of this book but I don’t think I got it. I so badly wanted this story to have a happy ending. It’s a story about the power of stories (if that makes sense) but not one for the faint hearted.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 17-01-2023
Eerily relevant
It’s like linking the threads of a frayed old piece of fabric back together.
This story although fictional reveals political and social issues of race, fear, and injustice, held together through power.
What a masterful creation. Thank you.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 05-03-2023
Not So Dystopian Child Removal
Thank you Celeste for writing this important story about child removal through the vehicle of fiction. I found it scarily believable.
Even though I liked the sound of the narrator’s voice, I found her delivery a little stilted in parts. However aside from that minor distraction, an excellent listen.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Terri Bates
- 22-11-2022
And unexpected delight
I initially thought I wasn’t going to enjoy this book, despite my love of Celeste Ng’s writing, not being in the mood for a somewhat dystopian flavour at the moment. but I absolutely loved it. Inspirational
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1 person found this helpful
