Naila Karim★ Scout · Lv 6
todayNg lays out every character's motives so fairly you can't pick a side. Devastating and precise.
Fiction
Little Fires Everywhere
by Celeste Ng
4.7· 1,737 ratings
Published 2014384 pagesEnglishAbsorbing · Incisive
Sometimes you need to scorch everything to the ground and start over. After the burning the soil is richer, and new things can grow.
Why read it
In a planned, orderly suburb where everyone follows the rules, an enigmatic artist and her daughter move to town, and the neat surface of one perfect family begins to crack.
The premise
Ng sets the rule-bound Richardson family against the free-spirited Mia and Pearl, then lights the fuse with a custody battle over an adopted Chinese-American baby. The novel examines motherhood, privilege, and the cost of a life built on keeping everything in its place.
The story behind it
Ng drew on her own upbringing in Shaker Heights, Ohio, for her 2017 second novel, which became a major bestseller. It was adapted into a Hulu miniseries produced by and starring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington.
What awaits inside
- 01
Order versus freedom
Elena Richardson's need for rules collides with Mia's improvised, rootless life.
- 02
Who gets to be a mother
The custody fight over baby May Ling forces every character to define motherhood.
- 03
The blindness of privilege
The Richardsons' good intentions mask how little they see beyond their own comfort.
- 04
Art and risk
Mia's photography embodies a willingness to disrupt that the town both fears and craves.
From the book
The novel opens with the Richardson house in flames and the discovery that the youngest daughter, Izzy, has set 'little fires everywhere' before vanishing.
The town splits over the custody trial pitting the wealthy McCulloughs against Bebe Chow, the birth mother fighting to reclaim her baby.
4.7
1,737 ratings
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