A complex and compulsively readable suburban saga that is deeply invested in mothers and daughters. The writing is poised.' - Wall Street Journal And there are time-capsule pleasures in her evocation of 1997. ' captures her setting with an ethnologist's authority. Who set the littles fires everywhere? We keep reading to find out, even as we suspect that it could be us with ash on our hands.' - Eleanor Henderson, The New York Times Book Review The magic of this novel lies in its power to implicate all of its characters-and likely many of its readers-in that innocent delusion.

It is a thrillingly democratic use of omniscience, and, for a novel about class, race, family and the dangers of the status quo, brilliantly apt. Our trusty narrator is as powerful and persuasive and delightfully clever as the narrator in a Victorian novel. It's this vast and complex network of moral affiliations-and the nuanced omniscient voice that Ng employs to navigate it-that make this novel even more ambitious and accomplished than her debut.

'Witnessing these two families as they commingle and clash is an utterly engrossing, often heartbreaking, deeply empathetic experience. Little Fires Everywhere explores the weight of secrets, the nature of art and identity, and the ferocious pull of motherhood - and the danger of believing that following the rules can avert disaster. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. 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. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past and a disregard for the status quo that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.Įnter 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. 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. From the bestselling author of Everything I Never Told You, a riveting novel that traces the intertwined fates of the picture-perfect Richardson family and the enigmatic mother and daughter who upend their lives.

Author of little fires everywhere