Our Missing Hearts

　　入選瑞絲・薇斯朋讀書俱樂部書單，並空降紐約時報暢銷榜單
　　「你絕不可能不被這本書感動！」史蒂芬・金推薦暢銷華裔作家伍綺詩新作
 
　　12歲的Bird Gardner低調地與父親生活在一起，這位曾經的語言學者，如今卻身無分文，只能在圖書館當館員養家活口。母親Margaret早在他9歲就離開家裡，沒有留下任何原因，父親也早把家裏母親相關的東西銷毀殆盡，只知道母親的身份是位華裔詩人。多年來，乖巧的Bird知道自己不要問不該問的問題，不要做惹人注目的舉動，必須端正守規矩，尤其是在當今政府為了安撫不穩的經濟和暴動的民風，開始提倡「保存美國本土文化」所實施的一系列政策，例如重新安置這些反美人士的後代們，特別是亞裔們，或是銷毀圖書館中那些含有不愛國言論的書籍等等。所以Bird從小便默默地被教導要否認他的母親，以及其詩文作品，即便Bird本身甚至不知道這些都是來自於他的媽媽，他只知道自己只能聽從命令。
 
　　然而，當Bird十二歲的這天，他收到了一封匿名信，內容是神秘的塗鴉，而收件人只寫著：Bird。他並不知道寄件人是誰，但Bird內心深處隱約覺得這來自於母親Margaret。他開始踏上了尋找母親的旅程，而旅程上的點滴開始換回母親在他小時候，曾經告訴過他的那些民間故事記憶，透過圖書館員們的地下網路，Bird來到了紐約，一場積壓已久的歧視反抗行動，即將展開⋯⋯

　　(文／博客來外文館)

　　'Named a Most-Anticipated Book by TIME, Vulture, Buzzfeed, The Los Angeles Times, The Associated Press, The Millions, LitHub, Goodreads, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus and more...

　　“As lyrical as it is chilling, as astonishing as it is empathic, Our Missing Hearts arguably achieves literary perfection.”  —Booklist (starred review)

　　From the number one bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere, a deeply suspenseful and heartrending novel about the unbreakable love between a mother and child in a society consumed by fear

　　Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet existence with his loving but broken father, a former linguist who now shelves books in a university library. Bird knows to not ask too many questions, stand out too much, or stray too far. For a decade, their lives have been governed by laws written to preserve “American culture” in the wake of years of economic instability and violence. To keep the peace and restore prosperity, the authorities are now allowed to relocate children of dissidents, especially those of Asian origin, and libraries have been forced to remove books seen as unpatriotic—including the work of Bird’s mother, Margaret, a Chinese American poet who left the family when he was nine years old.
 
　　Bird has grown up disavowing his mother and her poems; he doesn’t know her work or what happened to her, and he knows he shouldn’t wonder. But when he receives a mysterious letter containing only a cryptic drawing, he is pulled into a quest to find her. His journey will take him back to the many folktales she poured into his head as a child, through the ranks of an underground network of librarians, into the lives of the children who have been taken, and finally to New York City, where a new act of defiance may be the beginning of much-needed change.
 
　　Our Missing Hearts is an old story made new, of the ways supposedly civilized communities can ignore the most searing injustice. It’s a story about the power—and limitations—of art to create change, the lessons and legacies we pass on to our children, and how any of us can survive a broken world with our hearts intact.