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Cover of Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Little Fires Everywhere

  • 384 pages · about 6 hours
  • First published 2017
  • 22 editions

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1 About this book

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.

  • Female friendship
  • Family life
  • Asian Americans
  • Domestic fiction
  • Friendship
  • Single mothers
  • Motherhood
  • Adoption

2 About Celeste Ng

Born 1980

Celeste Ng ( sə-LEST ING; Chinese: 伍绮诗; born July 30, 1980) is an American writer and novelist. Her short stories have been published in a variety of literary journals. Ng's first novel, Everything I Never Told You, released in 2014, won the Amazon Book of the Year award as well as praise from critics. Ng's short story "Girls at Play" won a Pushcart Prize in 2012 and a 2015 Alex Award.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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