American author Celeste Ng shares how her latest novel Our Missing Hearts explores one of her deepest fears. 

Celeste Ng is known for her dark realist novels, Everything I Never Told You, and Little Fires Everywhere (which was adapted to the screen in 2020).

Our Missing Hearts is set in a dystopian, near future America, where anti-Asian sentiment has peaked, books are disappearing from the shelves, and children are being taken away from their families.

It's a chilling world but as Claire Nichols discovers at this Sydney Writers' Festival event, there is also hope in art, poetry, and family.

Celeste Ng also discusses book banning in the US and you can find out more about this worrying trend on The Book Show's new series Banned Books.