“It’s something that I’ve been aware of growing up as a Chinese American woman, that violence could be part of my life at any point in time. “I wasn’t sure if I wanted to put that into the book because it’s a dark thing to think about,” she said. Ng told Meyers that tackling the very real rise in anti-Asian hate crimes that has been seen in the United States through the lens of her book was partly an effort to inform, educate, and to process. But when Bird gets a mysterious letter, he embarks on a quest to find his mother.
His mother, a Chinese American poet, disappeared years earlier and is among the writers whose work is being removed by the government. The story, which is set partially around Harvard Square in Cambridge, follows 12-year-old Bird, a boy who lives with his father, an intellectual who now shelves books in a library. “Our Missing Hearts” imagines a world where, following years of economic instability and violence, a repressive system of government has emerged in which laws are written to preserve “American culture.” Libraries are forced to remove books with unpatriotic content, and authorities relocate the children of any who speak out, particularly those of Asian heritage. “She does such great work in trying to lift up stories that get people talking and having conversations, so I really admire that about her,” she said.
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