‘I am loving Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. Maybe my favorite
novel I've read this year’ John Green, author of The Fault in Our Stars
‘To say I love this book is an understatement. It's a deep psychological
mystery about the power of motherhood, the intensity of teenage love, and the
danger of perfection. It moved me to tears’ Reese Witherspoon
The brilliant new novel by the author of the New York Times bestseller,
Everything I Never Told You. Everyone in Shaker Heights was talking about it
that summer: how Isabelle, the last of the Richardson children, had finally gone
around the bend and burned the house down. In Shaker Heights, a placid,
progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is meticulously planned – from
the layout of the winding roads, to the colours 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 principal is playing by the rules.Enter Mia
Warren – an enigmatic artist and single mother- who arrives in this idyllic
bubble with her teenage daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons.
Soon Mia and Pearl become more than just tenants: all four Richardson children
are drawn to the alluring mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a
mysterious past, and a disregard for the rules that threatens to upend this
carefully ordered community.When the Richardsons' friends attempt to adopt a
Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the
town and puts Mia and Mrs. Richardson on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and
her motives, Mrs. Richardson becomes determined to uncover the secrets in
Mia's past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs to
her own family – and Mia's. Little Fires Everywhere explores the weight of
long-held secrets and the ferocious pull of motherhood-and the danger of
believing that planning and following the rules can avert disaster, or
heartbreak.
Author Biography
Celeste Ng grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Shaker Heights, Ohio. She
attended Harvard University and earned an MFA from the University of Michigan.
Her debut novel, Everything I Never Told You, won the Hopwood Award, the
Massachusetts Book Award, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and
the American Library Association's Alex Award. She is a 2016 National
Endowment for the Arts Fellow, and she lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.