Friends of the Library Book Discussion December 7th

The next event in the The Friends of the Michael Schwartz Library 2022/2023 Book Discussion Series is Wednesday, December 7th, 2022 at 12 noon - in person or via Zoom.  Our book discussions are free and open to all: faculty, staff, students and the general public. Register here for location or Zoom link. Join us!

Our Missing Hearts: A Novel by Celeste Ng

ISBN: 978-0593492543

Publication Date: October, 2022
 

From the number one bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere, a deeply suspenseful and heartrending novel about the unbreakable love between a mother and child in a society consumed by fear.

Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet existence with his loving but broken father, a former linguist who now shelves books in a university library. His mother Margaret, a Chinese American poet, left the family when he was nine years old without a trace. Bird knows to not ask too many questions, stand out too much, or stray too far. For a decade, his family's life has 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.
 
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 pulled into a quest to find her. His journey will take him back to 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 City, 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 civilized 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.

Wednesday, December 7th, 2022
12:00 noon - 1:30 p.m.
IN PERSON or VIA ZOOM - Register here for a Zoom link
Discussion Leaders: Richard Fox, Member, Friends of the Library; and Theresa Nawalaniec, Sciences & Engineering Librarian 

Friends of the Library book discussions are free and open to all CSU faculty, staff, and students and the general public.
Contact Barbara Loomis at b.i.loomis@csuohio.edu for more information.

Visit the Friends of the Library Events Page for details about the full series, and other Friends events
You may also download our 2022/2023 flyer (PDF).