Bestselling American author Celeste Ng’s third novel is a feat of meaty storytelling wrapped around a stark warning about the present day’s racial divisions, political conflicts and inequality. It’s anchored by two fictional conceits: a global “crisis” that tilts the international power balance away from the US and a subsequent piece of US legislation called Pact, the Preserving of American Cultures and Traditions Act. Frighteningly fast, the US develops into a jingoistic, ignorant and violently hostile society governed by racist fear and loathing, in particular of east Asians.
Noah Gardner, the young, half-Chinese American hero of the novel, grows up in this dangerous environment, one in which police violence, censorship and discriminatory segregation are the norm. His mother, a famous Chinese-American artist who left him and his father when he was a kid, kickstarts the plot by sending him a letter – already opened and read by the authorities – covered in drawings. What do they mean and what was the real reason for her disappearance?
