"He thinks of himself as a character in a fairy tale in a way who's going on a quest. And there's so many stories like that about a character who's going in search of a lost loved one, whether it's a daughter, a mother, a son, there's this sense of I'm going off to find you. And that's really powerful." Celeste Ng follows her massive hit Little Fires Everywhere with a novel set in a world that "looks like ours, but with the volume kind of turned up to 11" in Our Missing Hearts, an indelible story about family and identity, art and connection. Celeste joins us on the show to talk about the novel she never planned to write, mothers and sons, coming-of-age (for adults and children), Asian American history, pushing against our ideas of hero figures, being a word nerd and her love of Shakespeare, her literary influences and more with Poured Over's host, Miwa Messer. And we end this episode with TNR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Becky.

Featured Books (Episode):

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison Beloved by Toni Morrison The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston China Men by Maxine Hong Kingston Tripmaster Monkey by Maxine Hong Kingston Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu Featured Books (TBR Topoff):

Things We Lost to the Water by Eric Nguyen The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa

Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays).