Publisher's Synopsis
OUR LOST HEARTS - A Novel
Bird Gardner, a twelve-year-old boy, has a quiet life with his father, a former linguist who now stores books in a university library and is a loving but broken man. When he was nine years old, his mother Margaret, a Chinese American poet, vanished without a trace. Bird is aware that it shouldn't ask too many questions, stand out too much, or go too far. In the wake of years of economic instability and violence, his family's life has been governed by laws designed to preserve "American culture" for a decade. The authorities are now permitted to relocate the children of dissidents, particularly those of Asian descent, to restore peace and prosperity, and libraries have been forced to remove books deemed unpatriotic.
Bird has rejected his mother's poetry throughout his childhood; He knows he shouldn't wonder because he doesn't know her work or what happened to her. However, he is drawn into a search for her when he receives a mysterious letter containing only a cryptic drawing. His journey will take him back to the numerous folktales she read to him as a child, through the ranks of a shadowy network of librarians, into the lives of the kidnapped children, and finally to New York City, where a new act of defiance might be the first step toward the change that is sorely needed.
The story of how supposedly civilized communities can ignore the most vexing injustices is retold in Our Missing Hearts. It is a tale about the power and limitations of art in bringing about change, the lessons and legacy we leave behind for our children, and whether or not any of us can survive in a broken world with our hearts intact.
