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Cover of Little Fires Everywhere

Little Fires Everywhere

by Celeste Ng · 2017

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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.…

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"Celeste Ng’s second novel about family and adoption benefits from perfect timing and great, immersive writing. The opening pages – a beautiful suburban house in flames – are both mission statement and the beginning of a carefully plotted novel. A look at the lives of two families in Shaker Heights, Ohio, in the 1990s, it is a meditation on rules, race, class, insiders, outsiders, motherhood. There is no throwaway character. And after you’ve raced to the end of the book, you’ll want to read it again, to take the ideas and hold them up to the harsh light of 2017. Ng’s novel would be a great read in any time period – but if you’re struggling with the present moment and how we got here, this novel will do what any good piece of fiction does: illuminate."
NPR Books We Love — 2017 · apps.npr.org
Goodreads Choice Awards — 2017 · goodreads.com
"Celeste Ng writes with stunning accuracy about the power of motherhood, the intensity of teenage love, and the danger of perfection."
Favorite books · radicalreads.com