Little Fires Everywhere

Celeste Ng is a Chinese American writer and author of the novels Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere. Ng’s work often explores the lives of Chinese Americans and the tensions between mothers and daughters.

Ng was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1980, to Chinese immigrants. She grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. Ng’s father was a physicist and her mother was a researcher at NASA. Ng has said that she grew up feeling “like an outsider in both the white and Chinese communities.”

Ng attended Harvard University, where she studied English and American literature. After graduation, she worked in publishing and as a technical writer. Ng began writing fiction while she was working as a technical writer. Her debut novel, Everything I Never Told You, was published in 2014. The novel was a finalist for the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award, and it was named one of the best books of the year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, and others.

Ng’s second novel, Little Fires Everywhere, was published in 2017. The novel was a New York Times bestseller and a National Book Award finalist. It was

There is no set series of work that will be written, but I hope to continue writing about my experiences as a Black woman in America. My hope is that by sharing my story, I can help other Black women feel seen and heard, and offer a different perspective on what it means to be Black in America.

In the town of Shaker Heights, 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. Elena Richardson is one of these residents. She’s lived in Shaker Heights for her entire life, and she likes things just the way they are.

Enter Mia Warren and her daughter Pearl. Mia is an artist and a single mother, and she’s never fit in anywhere. When she and Pearl move into the town, they start to disrupt the carefully ordered world of Shaker Heights.

As their lives become intertwined, Elena and Mia find themselves at odds with each other. But when a custody battle threatens to tear Pearl away from her mother, the two women must put aside their differences to fight for what’s best for Pearl.

Little Fires Everywhere is a novel about mothers and daughters, about the choices we make and the consequences that follow. It’s a story of love and loss, of hope and despair. And above all, it’s a story about finding your place in the world.

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