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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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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
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 20-11-22
So very gripping
Extremely thought provoking and often difficult to listen to. Definitely worth persevering.
Echoes from history.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- Kariesa
- 04-04-23
Beautifully written and narrated
A heart breaking story so chillingly real in our world today. The fear that governments can invoke in society, and how quickly authoritarian regimes can arise. A worthwhile read and certainly thought provoking
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Adam Khadaroo
- 06-12-22
A Book Of The Times
This really is a book that needs to be read NOW, Iirs very much of the current times, I'm sure I will re read this. Sensational
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Mrs Kirstie Sobue
- 14-01-23
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
The best thing I have listened to for at least a couple of years. The book/story is incredible and Lucy Liu reads it with such compassion. I've recommended it to my book club (who all loved it) and bought it for several friends for Christmas. Listen; you won't be disappointed.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 04-12-22
Devastating and wonderful
Another great story from Celeste Ng. Really enjoyed the build up and the finale was so appropriate and so hard hitting. Worth it- but will make you think about anti- Chinese/ anti- Asian sentiment that rears its ugly head. Very good.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- Michele
- 26-12-22
Eerie beautiful and Worrying
Why does the world turn to hate when trying to manipulate people and what happens when you can no longer stop conforming.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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- Jonathan Jackson
- 30-05-23
Brilliant
I could not put this book down, I binged the first half within a few days (I usually listen over several weeks) but this story told from Bird’s perspective offers a different view and frames the story in a way I’ve not seen before.
I did struggle with some of the later chapters which I can’t talk about due to spoilers, but overall I would 100% recommend this book.
Lucy liu is a fantastic narrator too and really gives life to the story.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Zoe
- 26-02-23
Gripping and fascinating
Well written (and read), haunting and evocative. Really enjoyed, if enjoyed is the right word, as the sentiment and protection of state that the book tells could scarily be the future U.S. Echoes of A Handmaids Tale but possibly closer to a future reality. Love books like this that make me think and are well researched.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Olivia
- 08-07-23
Slow story but beautiful
Do not expect an intense plot. It is a depiction of parents love for their kids in a dystopian USA that has gone wrong. Beautiful, just not gripping.
I love Lucy Liu's voice, she has a heartwarming motherly tone.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Dr sarah Basham
- 31-12-22
Second listen even better
This book resonated with me on so many levels. The prose was lyrical thank you Lucy Liu for the way you narrated.
I am adopted and therefore a stolen child and understand the coercive political control governments have used in re-placing children. Loved the guerrilla art references. And the quiet way the dystopia unfolded as believable.
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