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Little Fires Everywhere: A Novel
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Little Fires Everywhere: A Novel
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Little Fires Everywhere: A Novel
Audiobook11 hours

Little Fires Everywhere: A Novel

Written by Celeste Ng

Narrated by Jennifer Lim

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

"Witty, wise and tender. It's a marvel." – Paula Hawkins, New York Times-bestselling author of The Girl on the Train and Into the Water

From the bestselling author of Everything I Never Told You, a riveting novel that traces the intertwined fates of the picture-perfect Richardson family and the enigmatic mother and daughter who upend their lives

"I read Little Fires Everywhere in a single, breathless sitting. With brilliance and beauty, Celeste Ng dissects a microcosm of American society just when we need to see it beneath the microscope..." –Jodi Picoult, New York Times-bestselling author of Small Great Things and Leaving Time
 
In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, 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. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.

Enter Mia Warren – an enigmatic artist and single mother – who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenaged daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past and a disregard for the status quo that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.

When old family friends of the Richardsons attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town--and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides.  Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs.

Little Fires Everywhere explores the weight of secrets, the nature of art and identity, and the ferocious pull of motherhood – and the danger of believing that following the rules can avert disaster.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateSep 12, 2017
ISBN9780525498070
Unavailable
Little Fires Everywhere: A Novel

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Reviews for Little Fires Everywhere

Rating: 4.110927660614064 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A book glowing with empathy and human insight. A wonderful read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    What an excellent book club book!

    At its heart, Little Fires Everywhere is an exploration of motherhood - the lengths people will go to become a mother, the sacrifices and compromises mothers make for their children, and the impact of those sacrifices on their children.

    The author included debatable issues that question when do we follow the rules and how often we justify breaking them.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Little Fires Everywhere has been at the top of several lists, including Goodreads, for best fiction of the year. Although it was near the top of my list, I would have ranked Beartown and Salt Houses a bit higher.This is a family drama set in Shaker Heights, Ohio - a planned Utopian community where rules and order are the guiding principles. Mrs. Richardson (the only way the author speaks of her) epitomizes Shaker Heights' beliefs. Her world gets shaken up once she rents her rental property to Mia, an unconventional artist and single mother to teenaged Pearl. Pearl and Mia become involved in the life of the six Richardsons. Neither family will be the same.I was easily immersed in the story and the characters. All were flawed yet all were heroes in their own ways. I probably loved Izzy most of all in part because it seems like someone should!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a story about families, and what a “good” family should look like. It looks at the bonds of motherhood, with questions raised about what makes a mother, biology or love; the power of money and of privilege, as well as the abuse of these assets; it is about the smug complacency of an affluent community and how such a community reacts when confronted by the intrusion of a less ordered world. Are there right and wrong ways of doing things or just different ways? It poses questions about whether inter-racial adoptions are ever a good thing. Is it better for a child to be brought up by a single parent of the same race in order to ensure that that child grows up fully aware of its racial and cultural heritage, even if this means growing up in poverty? Or is it better for a child to be raised by two financially secure parents, capable of surrounding the child with love, but never able to fully identify with a different culture? Will the child then grow up feeling isolated from its roots? Throughout the book the author challenges the reader to explore many differing points of view and, although initially it appears that many of her characters are stereotypical, as the story progresses each of them becomes much more nuanced, especially Elena as she is gradually forced to examine so many of her apparently ingrained beliefs about how she, and others, should behave. I think that Ng’s depictions of the conflicts faced by adolescents, as well as the power of their relationships, was excellent – I found myself alternating between feeling sympathetic towards and irritated by their behaviour! This story starts with a real fire but the back-story explores all the metaphorical “little fires” which led up to the major conflagration, demonstrating that fire, like passion, can be a dangerous and destructive thing! I think that Celeste Ng managed to integrate all these strands in an entertaining and reasonably credible way. However, there were moments when I felt that the issues surrounding the custody battle detracted from her development of her characters, they seemed to become mere “vehicles” for the conflicting arguments. I thought this was a shame because she is clearly someone who is able to capture the essence of people’s characters, behaviour and motivations and the dynamics of developing relationships. However, overall I did enjoy this thought-provoking story and think that the issues it raises would make it a good choice for reading groups.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The book started off slowly, but the story got more and more interesting as the characters were developed. There were several interesting twists that kept me thinking after I finished reading the book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Brilliant storytelling about a small planned community and the slowly-building tensions between families within that community. The story is told in a smooth narrative told from multiple points of view to present a deep dive into human needs and wants.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Very well written and comprehensive story. I was very interested in the well-developed characters. but sometime felt there were too many coincidences and too much happening. I compliment Ng on her vast knowledge and her ability to tie so many strands together so well.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Mia Warren, artist and single mother, for much of her adulthood has lead a nomadic life, traveling with her adolescent daughter, Pearl, in their VW Rabbit from town to town across the country , as if attempting to flee her past. When they arrive in Shakers Heights, a Cleveland suburb, the two hope to establish roots and finally make this town their home.When Mia rents a townhouse from Elena Richardson and her husband, a local upper-middle-class family. Soon the Richardson children become intertwined with Mia and Pearl, each seeking something lacking, e.g., friendship, love, or understanding.Much of the novel is told as a flashback providing context to an opening scene in which the Richardson's home is burned apparently from arson. Although the older Richardson siblings blame the youngest, the troubled Izzy, as the story unfurls others are identified as possible culprits.I'm always leery reading an author's second publication fearing it as a pale comparison to the first. However, in this case, I found Ng's second novel to be equally well-written and engaging. The author is skilled in portraying the brokenness many individuals share and the dysfunction behind an ideal family's facade. If you like Jodi Picoult's works, you will love Celeste Ng. Even Picoult plays homage to the brilliance and beauty of Ng's works.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I'm proud to add my voice to the Celeste Ng hallelujah chorus. She's one of our finest American writers of realistic family conflict, with a flair for revealing the inner voices and workings of suburbia, rendering them almost sympathetic. In the upper middle class paradise of Shaker Heights, Ohio, by birthright, no children is granted permission to be average. Mia, a photographer on the run from a monumental decision made decades earlier, lands there with her teenage daughter Pearl and disrupts the Richardson family, identified by the community after tragedy strikes as "there had always been something off". The four Richardson children entwine with Mia and Pearl, and when Mia recognizes the plight of a Chinese co-worker who abandoned her infant at a firehouse but later stabilizes and tries to retrieve her child from the infertile adoptive parents, consequences are disruptive for all. Elena Richardson, matriarch and inquiring small town journalist, delves into Mia's past and brings about the resulting earthquake-like events. Each child and adult are vividly portrayed and each is so innocent and so guilty, empathetic and even repulsive through the author's skill. A must read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Baby angst in the suburbs! I did like the characters though felt that Elena could have been fleshed out a bit more.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is not really my kind of book. I don't identify with or care for the characters or, more importantly, the themes. But the writing is extremely approachable. Some might say that Ng hits her readers on their heads with her heavy symbolism. But an unobservant reader like me needs the symbols and themes to be spelled out, so I didn't mind. The story was very absorbing, and worth thinking about.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I am still thinking about these characters and the neighborhood of Shaker Heights. I loved how the characters were so relatable even while being so different from each other, and not always being likeable. Everything felt so real, but the story was dramatic enough to keep me hooked. This was a book I wanted to finish quickly to know the story’s resolution, but also wanted to read slowly so it would never end.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The Richardson family is confronted with the more worldly Mia and her daughter Pearl when they move into Richardson's rental property. Mia is an artist and agrees to do some housework and dinner prep in exchange for rent. Pearl likes to hang out with the Richardson children who are all about the same age. They way the Warren's insinuate themselves into the Richardson's life changes everything.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Powerful examination of upper class American community, marriages, children, racial biases, but most esp mothers-children relationships, including all the issues surrounding childbirth...thoughtful, multi-character focus, nuanced characterizations (even the teen characters are interesting & varied individuals, no stereotypes in sight) and twists to the plot ...THIS is meant to be a book club book... even a group discussion guide and brief interview w/author in the back. Some passages in this book -being a mother & wife & daughter myself- oh wow. Ng deftly describes the complexity, the ambiguities, the dilemmas that come with relationships, but esp mother-daughter, woman-woman, etc. Best savored with other women friends of all ages, with some chilled wine to accompany the discussion that's sure to follow!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I loved this book and could barely put it down. Ng has a way of writing that instantly drew me in. Her characters are wonderfully drawn, and her pacing is flawless. Her descriptions of the art work created by one of the main characters are vivid. This is a book with many threads that are expertly woven together. It's about playing it safe versus taking risks in relationships and life. It's also about creativity as a selfish act - using unconventionality as an excuse for keeping emotional distance. But it's also about how love asks us to take risks. Much to think about - I'm sure I'll read this again one day and find even more in it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    There is something going on here and the title reflects it beautifully. Behind the perfect exterior, there are undercurrents of lies and misdirections. The relationships in this story were the most interesting things and they didn't always go in the directions I thought they would. It was heartbreaking to see the characters I really liked do things they would regret out of hurt and anger.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In ways this story reminded me of Secret History by Donna Tartt. A compelling mystery with many different takes on motherhood, both beautiful and painful. Lots to think about.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In the planned community of Shaker Heights, everything is perfect, tasteful, and serene. Not even the appearance of a free-spirited single mom and her artworks can make much of a ripple. But when one couple adopts an abandoned baby and the birth mother appears before the adoption is completed, all kinds of secrets and imperfections are revealed in the lives of three families.Ng manages to stay out of soap-opera territory, mostly by her ability to look at family dynamics and to insist that her characters at least acknowledge (if not fully accept) the consequences of their actions.The disputed-baby thread comes closest to cliche, as the bereft birth mother is painted as utterly blameless and totally incapable of navigating the world in which she finds herself, yet the reader is encouraged to root for her to regain custody.For all that, 'Little Fires Everywhere' is an engaging read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The book starts with Izzy burning down the house, and then backtracks into the lives of the very proper Richardson family and their 4 kids, who are not as proper as they seem, and Mia & Pearl, who are transient and renting a duplex from Mrs Richardson. Pearl wants the Richardson's life, but the Richardson girls latch on to Mia. Interesting contrast of families.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel and became very engrossed in what was happening. I even went to Realtor.com and looked at houses in Shaker Heights and read about its history also. I can understand the title from several different perspectives. There certainly were many little fires to be put out in two different families who become very intertwined, both literal and figurative fires. The issues addressed had me thinking more than once, and I like when a book can do that.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I am normally not a fan of family dramas, but this book was highly recommended to me by everyone who had read it, so I gave it a try. The story follows Pearl, a teenage girl who’s been following her artist mother, Mia, around the country, ultimately landing in Shaker Heights, Ohio. This perfectly planned postwar community is a bastion of normalcy in Pearl’s otherwise hectic life, and she grabs on to it with both hands. The year is 1997, and she quickly falls in line with the middle son and daughter of her landlords, the Richardsons. While Pearl’s family becomes pretty quickly enmeshed with the Richardsons, their budding bond is torn apart when they wind up on opposite sides of a divisive adoption issue happening in the town. I gave this book four stars just because when it comes down to it, family dramas really are not my jam, but this one was done very well. It is undeniably a good book and I am glad I read it. Ng is a great writer and crafts characters that are multi layered and believable. Some books, I read and don’t like any character. This one, I read and - if not liked, empathized with - all of them. I even felt for the characters making bad decisions or doing not-great stuff because in a way, they were performing in the only way they knew how.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    What a masterful piece of writing. The story of two very different lifestyles, one nomadic, artistic and thrifty, the other the sanitised all American dream of big house and money to burn.It’s a story of family, of children and being a parent with all its glory and mistakes thrown in, of race and acceptance. This will touch your soul a little. A beautiful, thought provoking modern classic
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Family dynamics, community perceptions, social justice, racial integration … all popular themes in today’s best selling novels. Little wonder authors are cramming many of these topics into their stories. It seems to have become a winning formula. But can you overload a book with too many issues, having them all competing and ending up with no winner?This seems to be the general consensus from our group with Ng’s latest novel. There really was so much going on here … but in the end, goes nowhere. A classic story of two families from polar opposite ends of society fall in together with the likely hood of, if not riveting at least interesting, outcomes becomes embroiled in a conglomeration of issues and back stories that would put any long running soap opera to shame! That is not to say the book was not enjoyed by our group. We had a few that loved the working of relationships, particularly mothers and daughters, and also the photography/art aspects of Mia, and there were those who found some empathy with Izzie and Moody. But overall it was stated that the characters lacked the depth to create an emotional involvement and the many teenagers and their day to day argy-bargy with adults and each other was just a little too much to take. To drive the story on a simpler and more direct path, say, concentrating on just surrogacy or inter-racial adoption, or even on teen parenting, the book may have had a clearer and more thorough direction. In reality, to cover too many topics in the one novel, does that not rob the author of material for yet another? Just a thought …
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The Richardson family watch as their house burns to the ground. Well, almost the whole family. Missing are the father, rushing home from work, and Izzy, whom they all believe started the fire.Set in Shaker Heights, an affluent neighborhood in NE Ohio, they are a family of earned privilege, mostly. The parents work to keep their want-for-nothing offspring as such. Tripp, Lezzy, Moody and Izzy.In a rental home they own lives Mia and her daughter, Pearl. Mia is a photographer of ascending fame, but meager resources. She and Pearl shop the curb to furnish their residences and thrift stores for the rest. Pearl has been influxed to the Richardson family via Moody. She crushes on Tripp, hangs with Lezzy and drifts from Moody.When Mrs Richardson (Elena) insists on “helping” Mia by hiring her to help keep her house & dinners up to snuff, dynamics change. Now advantaged with front row viewing of her daughter’s doings, she can see the allure that had drifted them apart.But things can’t be that simple. A photo in the local museum with Mia and an infant Pearl as the subjects, an abandoned infant adopted by Elena’s best friend being wanted back by the birth mother, Izzy’s ongoing battle with injustices and Moody’s frustration that Pearl is slowly being taken from his exclusive company cause the little fires that ignite animosity, deceit, and vengeance.A story that explodes, implodes, then settles in contemplation, there is much to digest. Thankfully, this is a leisurely paced meal. Fun back story on Shaker Heights, corroborated by bookish friends who also lived in that “inclusive” niche of Cleveland.Reminded me of Andre Dubus’ House of Sand And Fog, in that the catastrophe is a slow burn until it hits a gas line, then all out mayhem, effecting everyone, no matter the degree.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Full of great quotes such as:Pg108A modern woman, [Elena’s mother] always implied, was capable—nay, required—to have it all.Oh - a great story with wonderful characterization, as well.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    For once a book has lived up to its hype. I had heard good things about this book, and about Celeste Ng's writing, and I couldn't resist that title, so I grabbed it off of my TBR pile, and lost myself for awhile. This book has it all - characters that you can relate to, a story that will tug at your heart strings, and beautiful language and imagery. It's a book that looks at the complexity of motherhood, the effects of society and society's image of you on your family life and on your ideas of what is important, and what is not. It's a book that looks at adolescence and the angst and insecurities of that time. It's a book that looks at relationships and the uncertainties and how each relationship can haunt you and change you forever. It will also make you reexamine what you think would be a "perfect" life. We do not know what is simmering and bubbling underneath when we see someone who we think has a "perfect" life. It's been awhile since I've lost myself in a book and in the story it tells, but Celeste Ng has done that by writing this almost perfect book. I wouldn't want to change anything in it. It's wonderful the way it is.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The Richardsons live in Shaker Heights, a suburb of Cleveland and a very "planned and ordered" neighborhood. Colors, lawns, roads, etc are all perfectly done. Elena (Mom) is the ultimate embodiment of everything that Shaker Heights entails. She is a journalist and her four children, Trip, Lexie, Moody & Izzy attend the local schools, which are "perfect". Enter Mia and Pearl Warren. They are the newest tenants of Elena's two family house in the area, just not as close to their home as is comfortable. Mia & Pearl have been a wandering pair. Mia is an artist and goes with the creative flow. Pearl is an intelligent free spirit. The Richardson children become friendly with Pearl and really fall in love with her and her more free-spirited personality. Then they get to know Mia, and learn to love her just as much.Then a friend of Elena's adopts an Oriental child who was abandoned at a fire station. This is when the riff between the Richardson's and the Warren's begins to unfold. This is a good, soft story. You are inclined to feel comfortable with all characters. Celeste Ng certainly makes you feel all sides of this story and all the ways that the characters are feeling.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    What I liked about this novel was the unusual, unpredictable set of characters. There is also a plot line that builds as a flashback and then settles into a somewhat slow paced narrative that comes to a roaring finish (I will avoid the need for spoiler alerts). The story will give you an interesting take on, among other things, mother-daughter relationships. (Brian)
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I have seen this book at the top of so many lists that I had to see what all the buzz was about. Unfortunately, it didn't quite live up to my expectations.It started out interesting enough, with the burning of the Richardson's house and the family blaming it on the black sheep, Izzy, but then it goes into a slow progression of exposition. While the backstory was important narrative to build up to the main plot, it seemed to go on without a point and, just like her family, skipped over Izzy for the most part. She didn't seem to even have a place in the story until much later.Eventually, though, the story starts to pick up when the catalyst that really sets the story into motion erupts; the custody battle of May Ling/Mirabelle. But, right as everything is gaining momentum, the story takes a leap into the past for two chapters for more exposition.After this detour, it does finally get back to the main plot. From there it stays and wraps up beautifully, almost enough to make you forget the lag and side-stepping.What is praiseworthy is that Ng didn't shy away from diving head first into thought-provoking and controversial subjects. I found myself torn between Bebe and the McCulloughs, as both seemed so deserving of that little bundle of sweetness. The narration gave perspective of all the characters along the way, which created a deep empathy, even when you didn't agree with their actions. There were a lot of characters to get pulled into though, and at one point Lexi's boyfriend's parents seem to switch names for a moment.From surrogacy, adoption, and abortion, Ng examines the difficult choices that many women face with pregnancy and motherhood. Even up through raising teenagers, Ng asks the question, is there a "right" way to parent?While it's not making my top 10, it definitely was a good book that I enjoyed. It made me reflect on my own parenting and choices, which I don't usually find myself doing after a book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Great read for book clubs!