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Celeste Ng

Author Guide

Books Written by Celeste Ng

Ng writes literary fiction that examines race, class, and motherhood within seemingly placid suburban settings, drawing directly on her own upbringing in Shaker Heights, Ohio — the setting of her breakout novel Little Fires Everywhere. Both of her first two novels became major bestsellers and television adaptations, and her more recent work has moved into speculative territory addressing censorship and authoritarianism.

Little Fires Everywhere is her best-known and most widely read book, though Everything I Never Told You remains her critically strongest debut for readers who want her at her most tightly constructed.

By Lisanne Swart · 3 books · Literary Fiction · Updated August 2026

Quick answer

Celeste Ng is best known for Little Fires Everywhere (2017), adapted into a Hulu series starring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington, along with her debut Everything I Never Told You (2014) and Our Missing Hearts (2022). Little Fires Everywhere is her best-known starting point.

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01
Literary FictionStart here

Little Fires Everywhere

Celeste Ng · 2017

In the placid, progressive Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights, a mysterious artist and her daughter move in as tenants of a wealthy family, and their presence gradually exposes the town’s carefully hidden tensions around class, race, and motherhood.

Adapted into a Hulu miniseries starring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington, and set explicitly in the real Shaker Heights suburb where Ng grew up — a #1 New York Times bestseller and Amazon’s Best Fiction Book of 2017.

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02
Literary Fiction

Everything I Never Told You

Celeste Ng · 2014

Ng’s debut novel opens with the drowning death of a mixed-race Chinese-American teenage girl in 1970s Ohio, and unravels backward to reveal the family secrets, unspoken expectations, and racial pressures that led to it.

Named Amazon’s Best Book of 2014 and widely praised for its tight construction — a strong showcase of Ng’s ability to build a mystery entirely around unspoken family dynamics.

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Listen on Audible →
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03
Speculative Fiction

Our Missing Hearts

Celeste Ng · 2022

Set in a near-future America under an authoritarian government that removes children from parents deemed insufficiently patriotic, the novel follows a boy searching for his activist mother, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

A significant departure into speculative fiction, using a dystopian frame to examine censorship, surveillance, and anti-Asian sentiment more directly than her earlier, more domestic novels.

Buy on Bol.com →
Buy on Waterstones →
Buy on Amazon →
Listen on Audible →
Buy on Bookshop.org →

Watch: ‘Little Fires Everywhere’ Writer Celeste Ng

Celeste Ng discusses the Cleveland suburb that inspired Little Fires Everywhere and her hopes for opening doors to other Asian American writers, with CBS News.

Where to start with Celeste Ng

If you want her most famous book

Little Fires Everywhere is her best-known novel and inspired the acclaimed Hulu adaptation.

If you want her tightest, most acclaimed debut

Everything I Never Told You is a strong showcase of her mystery-through-family-secrets structure.

If you want her most recent, most political book

Our Missing Hearts moves into speculative fiction to address censorship and authoritarianism directly.

Frequently asked questions about Celeste Ng’s books

How many books has Celeste Ng written?

Celeste Ng has written three novels: Everything I Never Told You (2014), Little Fires Everywhere (2017), and Our Missing Hearts (2022).

What is the best Celeste Ng book to start with?

Little Fires Everywhere. It’s her best-known and most widely read novel, later adapted into a Hulu miniseries starring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington.

Is Little Fires Everywhere based on Celeste Ng’s own life?

The novel is set in Shaker Heights, Ohio, the real suburb where Ng grew up, and draws on her observations of the community’s culture around diversity and class, though the specific plot and characters are fictional.

Written by Lisanne Swart

Lisanne curates books for curious readers at lisanneswart.com, publishing original reading lists, author deep-dives, and honest recommendations since 2021. Read more about Lisanne.

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