Our Missing Hearts by Celest Ng review - This is a captivating dystopia with stark racial undertones

So it's unsurprising to discover Celeste Ng has followed the path of Margaret Atwood in The Handmaid's Tale and has written a story which interweaves real-life events, past and present, to create this dystopia.

The story follows 12-year-old Bird who lives with his father in a dorm room at Harvard University.

Bird's mother, Margaret, left when he was 9 years old and he has been taught to reject her and her poems.

This is set in an America where citizens are governed by laws set up to promote patriotism and preserve American culture. This follows years of instability in the country.

Consequently, there is a rise in discrimination against Asian people as the rise of Asia becomes a scapegoat for the demise of America.

Children of dissidents to the patriotic laws are often removed from their families and placed into foster care. This disproportionately affects Asian-Americans. Bird's mother is Chinese-American.

Ng says, in the author's notes, real-life inspirations for the book came from the separation of children from families including from enslaved families, Indigenous children sent to boarding schools and migrant families at America's southern borders.

She also cites the rise of anti-Asian discrimination following the COVID-19 pandemic.

On the patriotism laws Ng writes: "It was all too easy to imagine... the justifications for it, and the impacts it might have on society" and points to contemporary examples in the United States.

This makes for a captivating novel by Ng with themes of loss, love, family and racial injustice.

Given its inspiration from real-life events it feels all too real and one cannot help but wonder if this, in fact, could be a future America.

It's split into three parts and is constantly travelling back and forward in time.

It doesn't give everything away all at once but is constantly hinting at different elements, which makes the book all-consuming.

Bird, whose given name is actually Noah, is a well-written character and one which you come to completely adore and care deeply for.

This is complemented by an astounding cast of supporting characters, especially Bird's friend Sadie, who has been separated from her parents.

Ng has previously written two bestsellers, Little Fires Everywhere and Everything I Never Told You, but with Our Missing Hearts she may have just written her best one yet.